


Happy Wonderland

by Noizchild



Series: Wasteland 2011 [12]
Category: Durarara!!
Genre: Death, Gen, Lost Memories, Medical Experimentation, Medical Experiments, Mental Institutions, Mind Screw, Mysteries, Wasteland, videos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-15
Updated: 2016-04-15
Packaged: 2018-06-02 10:18:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 26
Words: 32,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6562450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noizchild/pseuds/Noizchild
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fourth volume is up. Second of three stories that follow my poem, "Wasteland 2011" and the core story. The Raira trio, Noriko, and Chiharu keep experiencing strange memories that they can't tell if they are real or fake. The only clues that they have are the little notes that they keep discovering in their texts, e-mails, and on paper. Who does Mikado keep talking to on the phone?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Patient

Happy Wonderland

Halo Zero: Patient:

On an undisclosed date in October, an undisclosed mental institution prepared to receive a new patient that morning. The clouds in the sky looked like they would give way to rain at any moment. The institution itself gave the impression of being out of place. Outside, the owner looked at his watch. The patient was to be due about seven o’clock. The forty-eight-year-old owner looked out at the parking lot and sneered.

_Those bastards never show up on time like they’re supposed to!_ It didn’t help that they never called ahead of time either. Still, the police were only doing their jobs with criminally insane patients in this country. The owner puffed up his cheeks and huffed. Finally, a dull grey truck pulled up into the parking lot.

“About time,” he muttered under his breath. The back doors of the van opened and the cop escorted the patient into the building. The boy couldn’t have been no more than seventeen years old. He kept his eyes down as they walked him up to the stairs. The owner of the institution show the boy no sympathy as he filled out the paperwork. _What the hell is wrong with the youth of this country these days? The author of Battle Royale had the right idea._ He bid the officer farewell as they marched the patient into the building.

\----------

Already, the patient received a chilly reception. The orderlies stripped him naked and hosed him down with high-pressured cold water. After getting cleaned up, they dressed him up in a grey shirt and matching pants. It didn’t help that the “saner” of the patients were whispering about him. The whole morning, the patient felt like he was in a fog. Every voice around him sounded like it was underwater. He didn’t even rouse from his stupor as they took him down for therapy. The orderlies sat him in a room empty except for a long table with two chairs on either side. They sat him down and left. The patient of seventeen years sat with his mind and eyes empty. He couldn’t remember why he was here or how he was found in an alley outside of the city. The clock ticking on the back wall seemed to make time move even slower. If a fly flew into the patient’s mouth, he would even know it. However, something did bring him back into reality.

The therapist walked into the room and closed the door behind him. He noticed something stir in his new patient’s eyes.

“Good morning,” the therapist greeted him as he took a seat. “How are you today?” The patient didn’t speak, staring at him as if trying to figure out what was going on right now. Things turned strange when the therapist leaned and asked him a simple question.

 "If I take these cuffs off of you, will you behave yourself?" he asked. The patient’s eyes widened as he drew his mouth closed. He could hear his own heart pounding in the dead silence of the room. The therapist reached forward with to unhook the plastic cuffs on the patient's wrists.


	2. Patient

Halo One: Fireflies:

_Summer 1983._

"Why are we out here?" she asked. Makoto looked over his shoulder.

"You'll see in a second," he said. She frowned as they walked further into the darkened woods.

"I don't like where this going."

"You will soon. Just trust me on this."

She pressed her lips together, nodding. "Okay…"

"Very good." Makoto led her deep into the woods by the hand. Last night, he caught a sight of beauty when he couldn't sleep. Such a vision couldn't be described in words. He just had to show her. _She's going to love this when she sees it!_ They came down to a swallow creek at the end of the woods. Makoto tried to pull her along with him, but she refused.

"Come on," he said. She shook her head.

"But my nightgown will get wet!" she complained.

"It'll be fine! The water's only ankle deep. See, look?" Makoto jumped up and down the creek a few times. "See? It's fine!"

"I can't see! It's too dark out here!"

"Oh just come on already!" Makoto pulled her right into the water with him. "There!"

"It's cold!" she yelped.

"It's going to get colder if we stand around here any longer," he pointed out. "Now come on." Makoto dragged her along with him in the ankle-deep creek. The whole time, she looked around with her fingers to her lips.

"Maybe we should go back?" she asked. "The bottom of my gown's getting wet."

"It will all be worth it, I promise!" he insisted. "Please, stop arguing with me and keep up." She drew her mouth closed and stole glances behind her as they keep walking. At last, they came to the center of the creek. She lowered her hand, looking around.

"Why did we stop?" she asked. Makoto smiled in the darkness.

"Take a look around you," he said. She looked up and saw a firefly flying around in the darkness. Makoto chuckled as he heard her gasp.

"Keep watching," he whispered. More fireflies lit up and flew around them. Pretty soon, their lights glowed around their bodies. She pressed her hands to her chest. Makoto looked behind him.

"Isn't it beautiful?" he asked.

"Yes!" she said, gasping. Makoto put his arm around her shoulders. She kissed him on the cheek.

"I love you," she whispered.

"Yeah, I love you too," Makoto said back. They watched all of the beautiful fireflies flying around them. This moment would be one of the last happy times they would have together.


	3. Mikado

 

 

Halo Two: Mikado:

Mikado looked at his computer screen. Many notes were posted on his wall, laptop, desk, and on the fridge. He held his cell phone to his ear.

"Yes, it's me," he said. "I'm not doing much. Just looking up some things." Mikado had his browser open to the wiki page for Disassociate Identity Disorder. To his right, the note read as follows: Disassociate Identity Disorder - ? Schizophrenia - ? Bipolar - ?

"Oh, just something for a research paper." It was a lie, he couldn't quite yet trust the person on the other line. Mikado scrolled down on the page, reading the information for god knows how many times he's been over it.

"What about my friend? She's doing fine. Nothing special happened today." Mikado read over the symptoms and copied them to an unsaved document on his computer.

"Although," he said. "She has been acting a bit strange lately..."

It all started with an e-mail.

Last month, Mikado was on the Dollars chatroom when an alert for a new message popped up on the screen.

"What is this?" he asked. Mikado read the subject line and frowned.

"Check this out?" he asked. On the surface, it looked like click-bait. Still, he just had to click on the message. Mikado prepared himself to be grossed out or get a cheap jump scare from the contents awaiting him. Neither happened, instead the message contained one line of text.

"April is the cruellest month, breeding?" Mikado read. He blinked at the lonely line on the screen. The sender's name and address were just messed up characters. He clicked reply and typed his own message.

"Who are you? Why are you sending me this?" Mikado typed. He clicked "reply", but the e-mail system bounced back with a "failure to deliver" message.

"The hell?" he asked. A private message window popped up on the screen.

Bakyura: Mikado?

Taro Tanaka: Masaomi, is that you?

Bakyura: Yeah. Hey, I just got this weird e-mail.

Taro Tanaka: From who?

Bakyura: I don't know. I can't read the address.

Taro Tanaka: What does it say?

Bakyura: April is the cruellest month, breeding.

Mikado's eyes widened. Before he had the chance to reply back, another private chat window popped up.

Saika: Mikado, did you just get this message? "April is the cruellest month, breeding."

Mikado's phone buzzed with a text from Chiharu. She too got the same message that the Raira trio did. By the time Noriko called, Mikado could already guess what this was about.

"Did you get an e-mail saying, ‘April is the cruellest month, breeding'?" he asked.

"How did you know?" she asked.

"I got the same thing."

"What does it all mean?"

"I don't really know... Hang on." Mikado copied the e-mail message and plugged it into Google. The first result to pop sent a chill through him, but he couldn't explain why.

"Mikado?" Noriko asked on the other line. Mikado immediately typed and asked the same question to her, Masaomi, Chiharu, and Anri.

"Does T.S. Eliot's _The Waste Land_ mean anything to you?" he asked.

 

 


	4. Keiichi

 

 

Keiichi by Noizchild

Halo Three: Keiichi:

Mikado flopped back on his bed. "It's strange, she didn't used to be like this." He reached for his ceiling.

"Yeah, she was on medication before. No, it wasn't better. Another one of our friends said talking to her was like talking to a machine." Tonight's research didn't get him anywhere. He expected as much. After all, this wasn't the first time he's done this. Mikado rolled over on his side.

"What do I think?" he asked on the phone. "I don't really know to tell you the truth."

-Earlier that Day-

Twenty-year-old Minami Keiichi walked into the club room for the journalism club in Rikkyo University after summer break. The members of the club looked up when the door swung closed.

"Hey!" the three guys and two girls greeted him.

"Yo," he said, waving. Keiichi looked around the room. Two of the guys were playing pool. The third and the girls sat at different computers near the windows. The sight alone made Keiichi feel like he was back at home. "How long has it been since we last got together like this?"

"Who knows?" a senior, Isao, said as he chalked his tip. "I'm just happy break's over."

"You are weird like that," Keiko, one of the girls, said at her computer.

"Hey!" Isao said. "The countryside is boring. After about three days, I was like okay, I had enough of this bullshit. I'm leaving."

"I didn't do anything over break either," Masako, the other girl, said. Isao raised an eyebrow.

"Except sleep?" he asked. She turned around, chuckling.

"Guilty!"

"You are such a lazy bum!"

"Me? You're worse than I am!"

Isao put his hands on his hips. "And what makes you say that?"

"You are practically sleeping in all of your classes!"

"Liar!"

"Oh really? Then who was that snoring loudly in English history class this morning?"

"That wasn't me!"

"Who's lying now?"

"Shut up!" Keiichi looked around while Masako and Isao argued about the latter's tendency to doze off in class. It donned on him that someone was missing.

"Hey, where's Arisu?" he asked. "She's usually one of the first ones here. I expected to see her back today." The rest of the club members became quiet. Keiko bit her lower lip as she struggled to put this as painlessly as possible.

"Nobody's seen her since last night," she admitted at last. Keiichi raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"She didn't come home from her job last night," Masako said. "This morning, the baby-sitter got worried when she didn't call. She had to call the landlady to take care of Sora so she had to go to school."

"That's not like Arisu," Keiichi said. "She usually calls Kamichika-chan when she gets off from work. And you're sure she didn't call?"

"We haven't been able to reach Arisu since," Takumi, another member said. Keiichi thought about this. He remembered that she took a job at an underground club six months ago to follow a story about a string of young women disappearing all over Ikebukuro. Last night before going to work, Arisu told him that she was about to "blow the top off of things." Could the story she was chasing have caused her disappearance?

"Hey, what was the name of that club she was working at again?" Keiichi asked.

"Um... I think it was either called Paradise or Red Bunny," Masako said. "Hang on." She turned to her computer and did a quick search. "Ah, here it is. She working at the Red Bunny." Isao whistled.

"Whew, man!" he said. "You have no idea how hard it is to get into that place!"

"Don't you need a ticket or something?" Takumi asked.

"Yeah and even then some of them get turned away at the entrance," Isao said. "You have to have one of those rare tickets that lets you in." The girls leaned in intrigued.

"How can you tell if your ticket will get you in?" Masako asked.

"You can't," Isao said.

"What?!" the other members asked.

"Only the bouncer needs which will get you in, there is a little trick to bypass the system."

"How?" Takumi asked.

"You have to have a gold or silver mask," Isao whispered.

"You're kidding," Keiko said. The senior shook his head.

"Nope," he said.

"How do you know all of this?" Masako asked.

"I listen to the rumor and look around online," Isao said proudly.

"I see," Keiichi said after giving it all much thought. "How do I get a ticket?" The senior of the club gave him a strange look.

"You have to get a red and silver and cash it in some convenient store near Kinko Sekai Apartments," he said. "Why?"

"Thanks for telling me," Keiichi said. The junior turned and headed out the door.

"Keiichi?" Masako asked. "Where are you going?" He looked over his shoulder.

"What else?" he asked. "I'm going to find out what happened to our friend." The rest of the journalism club felt a sense of dread as the door swung closed.

 

 


	5. Book

 

 

Halo Four: Book:

Mikado looked at the clock on his laptop. Close to midnight and still on the phone.

"Have you heard of this poem called  _The Waste Land_?" he asked. "It's a long poem. I haven't had the time to sit down and read the whole thing. Why? I've been busy." He shifted his eyes. "You can say that. Though, I'm curious about something. Why are you so interested in my friend?" His boss persona slipped out when he asked that question.

-Five Weeks Ago-

Mikado kept having weird visions in board daylight. They started out the same: he'd open his eyes in a dimly lit room with beds. He found himself unable to move his head as he lay in his own bed, weakened. He could barely see around him, but he heard the groans on either side of him. Despite the low sounds, they were enough to make his stomach turn. These visions would act at random like right now. This time, he heard footsteps with the groans. Mikado rubbed his temple as the images repeated in his head.

"Ryugamine-kun?" someone asked in reality. "Ryugamine-kun? Are you okay?" Mikado jerked his head upwards. Junko stood in front of him with a concerned look on her face.

"Nurse?" he asked.

"Are you alright?" she asked. "You look so pale."

"Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm fine," Mikado said, nodding. Junko raised an eyebrow.

"Well anyway, I came here to pass along a little message," she said.

"What's that, nurse?"

"The library says that you have some book on hold since the summer semester. I think it was since the summer."

Mikado stared blankly at Junko. "What? I don't remember putting any books on hold."

The nurse shrugged. "I don't know what to tell you. I think you should go and see what they are talking about." The way she said it gave Mikado the impression of the power of suggestion.

"Okay... Uh... thanks for letting me know," he said.

Nevertheless, Mikado and Masaomi headed down the library twenty minutes later. The blonde gave his head a strange look.

"And you're sure you didn't put this book on hold?" he asked.

"Yes," Mikado said.

"And you're sure you didn't put this book on hold and forget about it somehow?"

"I'm sure!"

"Okay, okay." The boys walked up to the front desk. The librarian pushed up his glasses.

"Can I help you boys today?" he asked.

"My name is Ryugamine Mikado and I think I have book on hold or something."

"Sure, give me a second," the librarian said. He turned to his computer and typed in Mikado's name. "Yes, you do. You have a book by T.S. Eliot on hold."

"When was this?" Mikado asked.

"I think... summer two months ago."

"Are you sure I did?"

"Yeah."

Mikado looked at Masaomi before turning back to the librarian. "What is the name of the book?"

The librarian scrolled down on the screen. "Let's see... I believe it's called  _Selected Poems_." This heightened boys' interest.

"Do you still have it?" Mikado asked.

"Right here," the librarian said. He reached over to the pile and pulled out the thin book. "Here you are."

"Thank you," Mikado said, taking the book. Minutes later, Masaomi and Mikado sat at table, looking at the table contents.

"I don't why I would want this particular book," Mikado admitted. Masaomi was about to speak when one title caught his eye.

"Hey man, look," he said. The other boy looked and saw the title,  _The Waste Land_. As if on instinct, Mikado turned to the exact page. But when he opened it up, Mikado and Masaomi found a small folded up piece paper in between the pages.

"What's this?" Mikado asked. He pulled out the paper and looked inside with Masaomi.

"Angel tadpole heaven?" the blonde boy asked. Mikado read over the words. It didn't take him long to recognized the hand writing.

_When did I write this?_  Suddenly, he felt another attack strike him.

"Mikado?" Masaomi asked. His voice sounded distant under the groans and dull, blurry visions. This time, a new element came into play during this attack. The last thing Mikado could remember before blacking out was the overpowering smell of bleach.

 

 


	6. Hunt

 

 

Halo Five: Hunt:

The "Angel tadpole heaven" note was taped to the top of Mikado's computer. He sat on the floor on the phone again.

"Somehow, I expected you to call me again tonight," he said. "Well, you keep calling around this time. I'm trying to understand." Once again, the question ended up being dodged.

"My friend is doing well today," Mikado answered. "No. No headaches. She's doing well, actually." Just like the caller, the boy dodged questions when it came to Noriko. "Tell me, does 'angel tadpole heaven' ring any bells to you?"

Keiichi managed to track down Kamichika Rio as she was walking home from school. The junior raced across the street, flagging her down.

"Hey! Hey!" he shouted. Rio looked up with a strange expression on her face. Keiichi caught up to her, panting.

"Who are you?" Rio asked. Keiichi stood up straight.

"Are you Kamichika Rio?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Oh good, I'm looking for my friend, Honda Arisu. I need to ask you a few questions. Can we go somewhere and talk in private?"

Rio drew her mouth closed. "Okay." She followed Keiichi into the local park.

"She hired you to baby-sit Sora-kun when she had to work, right?" Keiichi asked on the park bench.

"That's right," Rio answered.

"Tell me about the last night you saw her."

"Okay, she called me over like she normally did."

"Did she seem worried or anything?"

"No. Arisu-san just gave me the usual instructions and went to her job."

"Then what happened?"

"It was a typical night. I bathed Sora-kun and put him to bed. Then I finished my homework, watched some TV, and fell asleep on the couch."

Keiichi took notes as fast as he could. "Right. Anything else?"

"She usually calls when she's just about near the apartment."

"And when is that?"

"I think about three or four in the morning."

"And she didn't call back?"

"No."

"Then what happened?"

Rio leaned back, trying to remember. "The next morning I called her landlady to come and take Sora-kun because I had to go to school."

"And Arisu hasn't called back since?"

"No."

Keiichi finished up his notes. "Okay, thank you for your time."

"I hope she's okay."

"Me too." They went their separate ways.

Keiichi had a plan to get into the Red Bunny. He turned to his journalist club for assistance. The boys didn't want to help out, naturally.

"Are you crazy?" Isao asked. "It's nearly impossible to get into that place!"

"I have to try," Keiichi said. "Our friend is missing. Don't you want to find out what happened to her?"

"Well, yeah but-"

"Tell me where I can get one of those red and black cards."

"It won't be that easy."

"Just do it!"

Isao sighed. "I'll see what I can do."

Keiichi made his way to Arisu's apartment by five. He knocked on the landlady's door.

"Hello?" she asked as she peeked through the open crack.

"Uh... hi. My name is Keiichi. I'm a friend of Arisu's," the junior college student opened the door wide.

"Oh, are you here to here to pick up Sora-kun?"

Keiichi stared rather confused. "She hasn't been here to come get him?"

"No."

"That doesn't sound like her. She hasn't called either?"

"No."

Keiichi peeked into her apartment. "Is Sora-kun inside with you now?"

"Yes, he is. He's eating dinner right now, in fact." The landlady moved aside to reveal a little dark-haired boy sitting at her kitchen table eating a bowl of rice. Keiichi relaxed once he spotted the child unharmed.

"How is he?"

"He's okay. He's been asking about his mother."

Keiichi thought about the situation at hand. "I see. Hey listen, can you keep Sora-kun with you a little bit longer?"

The landlady raised an eyebrow. "What are you planning to do?"

He broke into a charming smile. "I'm going to bring his mother home."

It didn't make sense. Arisu was punctual with her life. She would've called Rio or her landlady if she was running late. Before school, work, or her social life, her son came first. Judging by what he had learned from Rio and the landlady, Keiichi believed without a doubt that something must have happened to his friend at her job while investigating those missing girls around the city. He sat up on his bed

If I had some way to get into that club... At that time, his cell phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Minami?"

"Oshiro?"

"Good news," Isao said. "I managed to get you one of those red and black cards."

Keiichi's jaw hit the floor. "What? How?"

"One of those hostess girls stopped by Russia Sushi on her way to work. Long story short, we got to talking and she slipped me one of those cards before she headed to the club she worked at."

The junior college student gathered up his camera and notepad. "Where are you now?"

"I'm in front of Russia Sushi."

"Don't move. I'll be right there in ten minutes!" Keiichi hung up his phone and rushed out the door.

 

 


	7. Junko

 

 

Halo Five: Junko:

Tonight, Mikado looked up an article about schizophrenia on Wikipedia while on the phone.

“Schizophrenia,” he said. “Just because.” Everyone in their circle tried to diagnose Noriko for close to a year. Even though they had their own secrets, no one could figure their friend out.

“She’s fine,” Mikado said. “She’s just a bit tired lately. I’m sure it’s just the stress with school. Of course it is. Why would I lie?”

\--------

-Junko-

They are starting to remember everything that’s happened to them. Right now, it’s in fragments, but his little darlings are smart enough to figure it out. This puts my company in quite a jam. Half of my team wants to erase their memory while my team wants to help them along. Right now, I can only watch them.

-Outside-

Mikado and his friends sat on the rooftop. Despite the same thought running through their mind, nobody dared to speak. Or rather, nobody knew how to start the conversation. Mikado looked up at his friends. _I can’t tell the girls about the note Masaomi and I found. I don’t even know what it makes myself. When did I even write it? Why would I write something like that?_ Chiharu cleared her throat. The friends looked up as she opened her mouth to speak. However after a few seconds, she drew her mouth closed. She looked down at her empty bento tray.

That e-mail allow sent them into a tail-spin of confusion. Now, they waited for one of them to speak up today on the roof. Masaomi mumbled a question to no one in particular.

“What did you say?” Anri asked. The blonde-haired boy lifted his head.

“Do you still have that book?” he asked again.

“Oh, yes,” Mikado answered. “Hang on.” The girls looked at Masaomi with confused looks on their face.

“What book?” Noriko asked. Mikado pulled out _Selected Poems of T.S. Eliot_ from his bag.

“This,” he said. “Somehow I had this on hold since summer and I can’t remember why.”

“We found a note stuck inside at _The Waste Land_ page,” Masaomi said. Mikado froze upon hearing that.

“What did it say?” Anri asked.

“Angel Tadpole Heaven,” Mikado said in a low, trembling voice.

“What does that mean?” Chiharu asked.

“I have no idea,” he said. He didn’t want it to come out like this, but Masaomi had to open his mouth and push them all further in. On the plus side, Mikado hadn’t had any attacks in the past couple of days. Still, he counted on it. He still couldn’t get why he smelled bleach before blacking out in the library. Still, part of him waited, wanted to dig deeper in and give himself and his friends peace of mind. First, he needed to get to the bottom of  “Angel Tadpole Heaven”. Somebody had to have the answers. Somebody had to.

-Junko-

The lad is already struggling with the visions he keeps seeing. It’s so tempting to toy with him first. Yet, my boss and the “erase” team are starting to worry about him. They can’t have him getting his memories back too soon. I don’t agree, but I will step in if he gets too close. His little friends aren’t grasping it just yet. Like I said, they aren’t stupid. Red’s already been through my box and know number one’s real name, but she hasn’t connected the dots just yet. I’m going to give her a little more time. Plus, Ringo led the girls a little bit further in. I will have to see where that goes. However, the one I’m really worried is Chiharu. Yes, that one looks like she might have already figured it out. She’s died before, but has a nasty little tendency to not _stay_ dead.

Besides the Dollars’ founder, Noriko is also so much fun to play with. I already pushed the code into our little princess’ head. These past through days have been fun to watch her suffer. I wonder how long it well take before she loses her mind. I keep counting down. Maybe we can start taking bets around the office.

I grit my teeth as I watch his little darlings awkwardly struggle to say something. One more element could go and bugger up everything. I don’t understand the boss had to add that jackal, Izaya, into our project. I do not trust that cocky little bastard. He’s got his agenda and he’s bored. Those wankers are the worst! If he gets in our way, I will kill him! I swear I will! I turned around when I heard a knock on my door.

“Yes?” I asked. A folded up piece of paper slid under my door. Ah, just in time for the next set of direction. I slid my chair over and picked up the paper. _Got it_ , I thought after reading. I shoved the paper into my coat pocket.

 

 


	8. Ticket

 

 

Halo Seven: Ticket:

Mikado looked out the window as he was put on hold. In his mind, he tried to figure out the identity of the caller. He didn't recognize the number and the name came up as unknown. The voice sounded distorted by some sort of an electric device. Still, the biggest mystery was why did this person keep calling him night after night around ten o'clock. The subject of these conversation were either about Noriko or the notes that Mikado had been collecting over the weeks. Instinct screamed "hang up" in Mikado's head. Still, his curiosity wouldn't allow it.

"Hm? It's okay," he said once the caller came back. "Now, where were we?"

\---------

-Across Town This Evening-

The outside light flickered as Keiichi stood in front of the run-down 7-11 fifty feet away from Kinko Sekai Apartments. Isao gave him a quick run-down of what to do.

"Here you are," he said, handing Keiichi the fancy black and red card.

"Thanks, man," the journalist student said, slipping it into his jacket pocket.

"If you really want to get in, you have to pick up a gold or silver mask."

"Where would I get something like that?"

"Don't go for the cheap party shops. Get it from a sex shop."

Keiichi's face turned bright red. "What?!"

"You want to get into the club, don't you?"

"Well... yes, but-"

His senior leaned in close enough for his lips to graze his ear. "Do what you have to get inside." Isao smacked him on the back.

"Ow," Keiichi mumbled. So after an embarrassing trip to the nearest sex shop to get the proper pass that he needed, (He couldn't get the clerk's snickering out of his head), he stood in front of the 7-11 wearing a gold mask decorated with black feathers. He had to do this to bring Arisu home. Keiichi counted down in his head and pulled open the glass doors.

Virtually, nobody was in the store. Except for the clerk reading a magazine on the graveyard shift, the place might as well have been dead. Keiichi was almost convinced that he had stepped into the wrong place. No, this was correct. Might as well get this over with. Keiichi walked up to the counter. The clerk peeked up from her magazine.

"Uh..." Keiichi said. "I would like to cash this in, please." He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the card. The clerk's dull expression didn't change on her face as he slid it across the surface. She picked up the card and rang it up. A receipt printed out and she handed it to the journalist student.

"You have a good night," she mumbled. Keiichi took his ticket, saluted, and headed out the door.

"Good night," he said before heading out the door.

\---------

Keiichi found the club entrance without any trouble. The further he walked, the more he noticed that there weren't any people around. _This feels kind of creepy._ Keiichi looked up when he heard shouting. He founded the sound to a man in a cheap suit holding up his ticket, begging another man in a black hoodie standing in front of two steel doors.

"Please that can't be right!" the suited man begged. "You have to let me in! I want more! I want more!" The stoic guard pushed the man off. The crazed soul crawled back, clutching his ticket like it was his last yen bill.

"I must get in!" he wailed. "I want to see the goddess! I want to see the goddess!" The hooded guard pulled out his phone and made a quick call. The suited man looked around as two more guys with Heaven's Slave tattoos came and dragged the addict away.

"What?!" he yelled. "No! Stop! Stop! My goddess! My goddess!" Keiichi clenched his teeth under his mask. _Poor bastard._ Still, his rescue mission didn't allow him time to feel pity. He hoped that he would have better luck as he walked up to the hooded guard. Keiichi gulped as he held up his ticket. The guard looked at the numbers on the faded piece of paper. The journalist student bit his lower lip as he waited. Suddenly, the big man in the hoodie handed back the ticket and moved aside. Keiichi bowed his head and walked through the opening doors. _Whoa! I'm in!_

\-----------

 

Keiichi followed the red jasmine-scented perfume down the narrow dark halls. He didn't stop moving as his eyes shifted left and right. Steps one and two were down. He would first check things out, take some notes, discreetly ask some questions, and build his case from there. However, the walk through the black and gold confetti curtains would end up leading him into both a bigger distraction and another project.

 

 


	9. Fragments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fourth volume is up. Second of three stories that follow my poem, "Wasteland 2011" and the core story. The Raira trio, Noriko, and Chiharu keep experiencing strange memories that they can't tell if they are real or fake. The only clues that they have are the little notes that they keep discovering in their texts, e-mails, and on paper. Who does Mikado keep talking to on the phone?

 

 

Halo Eight: Fragments:

Mikado felt the sharp pain in his head while on the phone tonight. It's gotten worse lately. The visions in his head began to feel more read than they ever had in the past. He could smell the bleach as he felt himself strapped down the hospital bed. New details came with this latest brutal attack.

The other patients moaned in pain their beds. A man, no two men, in grey scrubs walked around injecting god knows what into their arms. He couldn't tell if this was from a dream or his own memories. When would he have been in a hospital? But, it didn't look like any hospital that he had seen been. That place looked like some sort of an institution or prison. It would probably explain why he was strapped down in the bed. Mikado took in deep breaths as the bleach smell was powerful enough to knock him out tonight.

"I'm sorry," he said, gulping. "I don't think I can continue this conversation anymore. I don't feel well. Good night." Mikado hung up before the caller could ask questions. He sank to the floor, panting. Strangely, he began to feel better.

\-------

He's not the only one who feels it.

-Masaomi-

He felt his own pain. It started three weeks ago with a sharp ache just below his left shoulder. Today, the Yellow Scarves' leader felt it to the pain that he had to grit his teeth to keep himself from screaming. This time, right under his shoulder to his fingers felt numb. _I can't feel arm! I can't feel my arm!_ He broke into a sweat as he panicked. Masaomi took a deep breath when the pain subsided. He flexed his fingers to feel any sensation. The Yellow Scarves' Leader looked at his arm. Everything looked fine and he hadn't done anything strenuous to cause such injury.

Before his pains, Masaomi noticed something about his phone. At first, the screen went pitch black. He smacked his phone and took out the battery. Sure the screen would come back up, but Saki's picture would be fainted, blurry, or look wavy. The weirdest thing was the people at the cell phone store said nothing was wrong with his phone.

"Are you sure?" Masaomi asked.

"Yeah," the guy at the desk said. "Everything looks fine. How long have you had this phone?"

Masaomi did a quick count in his head. "About... four or five years?"

"Wow! This phone's in great condition!" The guy behind the desk handed Masaomi his phone back. "I don't what to tell you." The Yellow Scarves' Leader found himself stuck as his looked at his phone acting normal for a change.

As for his arm, Masaomi went to the school nurse to have it examined. Junko looked at his left arm up and down.

"It looks barry to me," she said. "How long have you had these pains?"

"Three weeks."

"I see." Junko wrote down some notes on her clipboard. "Think it might be a psychological cause?"

Masaomi's eyes trailed over to the nurse. "Huh?"

"You know, something you feel guilty about and maybe that's why you're imaging the pain and numbness in your arm."

He shook his head, confused. "No..."

Junko raised an eyebrow. "No?"

"I don't have any guilt and the pain in my arm is real."

"Are you sure about that?"

Masaomi gritted his teeth in a painful-looking smile. _She's just as bad as Izaya._ "Yes, I am."

Junko closed up her pen. "You aren't a good liar, Kida-kun. But then again, you already knew that, didn't you?"

Masaomi tilted his head. _Hasn't she told me that before?_

-Anri-

She started getting her own set of clues as to what was going on. The first one came in an e-mail from what looked like a fake address just like the one with the first line of the poem, _The Waste Land_. No subject line, just a single link to old unsolved murder cases.

First case related back to a brutal of a fifteen-year-old schoolgirl right in the city in 1987. The police went to apartment number 27 when the staff at Raira Academy reported one of their teachers, Abe-sensei, didn't show up for work for three days. The found the teacher's body lying cold on the living room floor. Anri found herself going further down this rabbit hole as she read more reports about the schoolgirl, Abe-sensei, and her family.

The girl in question, Isobe Hisayo, was found dead with a bloodied plastic trash bag. Cause of death was officially ruled as exsanguination from multiple stab wounds. Her neck had been snapped at a ninety-degree angle and her stomach was cut wide open. The police believed her mother went insane, murdered her older daughter, and stuffed her body in the ceiling.

The next set of articles revealed that Hisayo had a younger sister, Toshiko. The police never found her body or the family's pet cat, Mao. Their mother, Asuka, was found dead days later in the street. As the mother of the Saika army looked at the pictures, couldn't help but get the feeling that she had seem the victims in question. It couldn't be possible. How could someone be back from the dead? Okay, there was Chiharu, but this was different. Anri became remembering that she saw Hisayo staring her down, reaching for her neck. She had nothing in her eyes. The most chilling part was that the dead girl looked as dark as coal.

Anri put her hand to her thought as she tried to think about something else. Right then, she decided to look at the other article that had been plaguing her.

Another case sounded closer to her time. A doctor and a secretary had been murdered in said doctor's office. The crime scene was a mess with huge amounts of blood on the wall and floor and papers scattered everywhere. Nothing was stolen and the bodies were never found. The only known suspect was the doctor's wife and she fled the country. To this day, the case had never been. What stood out to Anri were the surname of the doctor and his wife and the wife's image itself.

"Yukimura-sensei," Anri said in the nurse's office. Junko didn't look up from her paperwork.

"Uh-hm?" she asked.

"Do you know anything about the deaths of Nakahara-sensei and his secretary?"

Junko froze. "No, why would you ask such a thing?" Anri noted the strained tone in her voice followed by the nervous chuckling. She wasn't sure of how to bring this up without making it more uncomfortable.

"Uh... well... I was looking at articles of old cases and I came across that case."

"And?" Junko gritted her teeth.

"The doctor's wife looked like you. Was she your mother or something?" The nurse whipped around with blood in her eyes.

"You've asked too many questions today!" she snapped. Junko leapt out of her chair and pushed Anri out of the nurse's office.

"What did I say?" Saika's mother asked. All she got was a slamming door in reply.

-Chiharu-

She looked the two large scars on her back. They appeared to be in place of where two wings would be. _I have had these since I was born._ Chiharu spent years trying to figure out what they were. When she was a little girl, her mother told her they were marks for being her little angel.

"I'm an angel?" Chiharu asked. Her mother set down the hair brush and hugged her from behind.

"You're my little miracle," she whispered in the little girl's ear. Today, something about the angel bit sent a violent shiver down Chiharu's spine. Along with that, she had another weird memory reoccurring in her head. She remembered talking to a woman sitting on a bench near a hospital. The conversation sounded muzzled in her head, but she remembered said woman crying. Also, the angle was "normal". _Was I floating in the air?_ Chiharu had to find the hospital in question and maybe settle the questions in her head.

Her and Junko didn't exactly get along on friendly terms. The school nurse raised an eyebrow at the no-nonsense girl.

"Why, Hashimoto-chan," she said.  "I have no idea what you are accusing me of." Chiharu snorted.

"Cut the crap!" she snapped. "What did you do to all of us?"

"I don't know what you are talking about."

"Don't lie to me. We've been acting strange ever since you first came here!"

Junko raised an eyebrow. "Strange? Strange how?"

"Stop playing dumb! Kida-kun's arm been in pain, Ryugamine-kun keeps having visions and violent headaches. Sonohara and I keep having visions too. And Nori-chan-!"

Junko waved her off. "Okay, okay. What's point you're trying to make?"

Chiharu puffed up her cheeks. "If I find out that you're doing anything to us, I'll--!"

"You'll do what?"

Chiharu opened her mouth when the door opened behind her. She whipped around to see a teacher poking his head inside.

"Did I come at a bad time?" he asked. Junko rose to her feet, clapping her hands.

"No, sir," she said. "In fact, Hashimoto-chan was just leaving. Isn't that right?" Chiharu glared at the smiling nurse.

"Why yes," she said. The student headed over to the door. Before leaving, she turned her head.

"This isn't over yet," she mouthed. Junko smiled and waved her off with grace. Chiharu forced herself to smile as she walked out the door.

-Noriko-

She felt it the worst. Like Mikado, her nightmares started to bleed into her waking life. Noriko fought to keep hallucination and reality separate. However, nightmares and hallucinations weren't the only things in her mind as of late.

Noriko was in her bathroom back at her apartment when she spotted something out of place. _Hm? What is this?_ She reached behind her bathroom sink and picked up a razor blade. While looking at it, memories of her cutting herself and slitting her wrists floated her mind. Blood swirled down the drain with the water in the shower. During those times, Noriko would beg for death to come and take her faster. However, someone always pulled her back. She couldn't remember who it was. _That can't right. I'm not suicidal. Why would I be thinking about something like that?_ Noriko shook her head as she put the razor back in its original spot. She backed out of the bathroom, trembling. The girl jerked her head upwards when she heard her phone ringing.

"Hello?" she answered.

"Nori-chan?" Mikado asked on the other line. Noriko felt her heard relax as she sat down on the floor.

"Mikado," she said. "It's you."

"Are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. I just go out of the shower when you called." However, her mood changed when Mikado asked a rather random question.

"Have you eaten today?" Mikado asked. Noriko frowned over the phone.

"Excuse me?" she asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I don't know why I asked you something like that," he said. The damage had already been done. At school, Junko was more than happy to pour the salt on the opening wounds.

"Still having dreams?" the nurse asked in her office. Noriko felt so tiny under Junko's hungry gaze.

"Yes," she said with her eyes looking down at her hands.

"What kind of dreams?"

Noriko gulped. "There is a protest."

"Go on."

"So many people are shouting and then..."

"Then?"

"Someone is drugging me through the crowd before they erupted into screaming?"

"Do you know why?"

Noriko shook her head. "It all goes too fast for me to see."

Junko leaned in with a cat-like grin on her face. "How did you feel during this crowd panic?"

Her victim pressed her lips together. "I..." Her stomach turned as she hoped for someone or something to come to her rescue. She got her wish when Junko's cell phone rang.

"Excuse me," she said. As the nurse took her call, Noriko pressed her lips together as she slipped out of the nurse's office.

-Mikado-

Back at his apartment, Mikado looked at his cell phone. Thirty nights in a row and he still had no answers for "Angel Tadpole Heaven". He didn't know whether to be annoyed with the run-around that the anonymous caller gave him or worried for his friends falling into the same boat as he was. Junko didn't help when she toyed with him just like she did with his friends during the week. Today, she tilted her head and smirked.

"You know what you remind me of?" she asked in her office. Mikado gave her a strange look.

"What?" he asked. Junko leaned forward with her creepy catlike smile on her face.

"There was one this patient I observed in a mental institution where I used to work," she said. "He was about your age. The details are rather hazy. They accused this boy of a horrible murder. They found him in an alley with his clothes covered in blood. He wouldn't talk in the police station. The patient didn't talk on the first few days he was institutionalized with him. Still, this boy intrigued my boss and he just had to learn more about him.

"What does this have to do with me?" Mikado asked. Junko pushed her hair behind her ear.

"Tell me something, Ryugamine-kun," she said. "Does Chou Mori Institution ring any bells?" Mikado shook his head.

"No."

The nurse sat back with a little smile on her face. "Of course not. You're a good boy. Why would anyone like you end up in a psychiatric ward for the criminally sane?" Something about her tone made his skin crawl.

\-------

Tonight, Mikado looked around at all of the notes increasing and invading his apartment. These notes meant nothing to him so far. _If only I had some way to push this forward._

He lifted his head when he heard pounding on his front door. Mikado lifted his head with a puzzled look on his face. _Who is that?_ When he got up and opened the door, no one was in sight. Mikado was about to go back inside when he noticed a box addressed to him sitting on the ground.

"Huh?" Mikado asked. "What is this?"

 

 


	10. Auction

 

 

Halo Nine: Auction:

Mikado sat at his computer with the phone in his hand. "It's bipolar disorder tonight. Nah, I'm just looking. Because I want to." Mikado paced himself for the next question. The caller would probably be onto him by now.

"So tell me," Mikado said. "What happened back in the summer of 1987? Hm? You won't give me answers to my other questions. Could you at least tell me what happened twenty-years ago?" His boss persona popped up for a brief moment, but Mikado battled to keep him down long enough to get answers.

"Well, my friend-No, not the one having problems or her friend. This is another friend of mine. I have three female friends." Mikado chuckled. "I'm not _that_ popular. Anyway, this friend of mine came across some interesting articles. One was about this girl was killed by her mother. Funny thing, this girl and her sister look so familiar. But that can't be right, now can it?" _Let's see you try to weasel your way out of this one!_ Mikado smirked as he waited.

\--------

Keiichi felt like passing out from the overpowering jasmine. He had to take slow breath to keep from throwing up. _I need to stay focused. I have to bring Arisu home to her son._ He reached a curtain made of white crystals. Keiichi pulled himself together from the jasmine perfume swirling around in the air. He did a quick run through with his plan. Go in, observe everything, take a seat, get a drink, and ask a couple of questions on the fly. Simple enough, yes?

The lavish backdrop brushed away his thoughts.

Gold and lavender danced around the room. Here the jasmine perfume was stronger, but not so overpowering. It almost set his mind in a strange place that made him feel warm inside. Brightly colored lights flashed around overhead. Most of the men were well-dressed in western-style suits. Some of them wore silver or gold masks. Glitter showered everyone in the room every ten minutes. On stage, an elegant woman in a pearl-colored corset and black mini skirt sang an alluring song of the old days. Pretty girls in various flirty costumes served the men drinks and sat with them, talking. A couple of patrons groped the girls as they sat on their laps. A puzzled look came over Keiichi's face.

_Did I just step into another world or something?_

Sure, Keiichi was used to hearing about sex and kinky things. This... He shook his head. _I have to focus here._ The journalist student calmed himself down while looking for a place to sit down. Keiichi finally found a spot near the exit and took a seat. He rubbed his forehead under the mask. _Why do I feel so dizzy?_

"Sir, would you like a drink?" a small voice asked. Keiichi shifted his eyes to his right. A cocktail waitress dressed like a Vegas black jack dealer stood next to him, holding a tray. Keiichi nodded as he gulped.

"Sure," he said.

"What would you like?"

"Anything you have on your tray there."

"You got it." She handed him a cool glass of Mitsuya Cider. "Here you go."

"Thank you." Keiichi downed his glass in one gulp.

"Better?" the cocktail waitress asked.

"Yeah!" Keiichi found that his head stopped hurting and that he could focus.

"Are you new here?" she asked.

"How did you know?" he asked.

The waitress tapped the side of her nose. "I can spot the newbie by the uncomfortable way that they sit."

"Really?"

"Yeah." She brushed his hair from his forehead. "You could use a little treat to relax with." The waitress moved into his lap before he had a chance to speak. "Do you want me or another girl?"

Her question reminded him of his mission. "Actually, I am looking for another girl."

"Oh? Did you want someone in particular?"

"Yes, actually. Could you tell me if this girl is available tonight?" Keiichi drew out his phone and showed the waitress a picture of Arisu. The girl on his lap grew pale as her eyes shifted left and right.

"I'm afraid she doesn't work here anymore."

Keiichi tilted his head. "Why is that?"

"I'm not allowed to talk about that."

"What do you mean?" The waitress looked away and before Keiichi could push for more questions, the curtains behind the singer rose. An old man in a black and gold kimono walked out on stage.

"Gentlemen!" he yelled. "You are in for a real treat tonight! We will begin the auction of our goddess to change hands!" The men in the crowd roared with cheers. Keiichi turned to the waitress on his lap.

"What auction?" he whispered. She gently tapped him on the nose.

"That's for me to know and you to find out," she said in a flirty tone. Keiichi gulped as he nodded. The waitress climbed of his lap and disappeared to tend to over patrons. The old man moved aside and the stage lowered, allowing the golden gates on either side near the exits to open. Curious, Keiichi followed the crowd in for the "auction".

\--------

Downstairs had a completely different vibe. Keiichi spent the perfume much stronger. He forced himself to stay awake as he kept walking with the crowd. On either side of the herd of men, some of patrons were screwing the girls in various positions. Keiichi tried to tune out the constant moans and faint screams to take mental notes about his surroundings. The more he walked, the more he noticed something was off about these girls. _Why do they look so dazed out?_ The girls had nothing in their eyes as they were repeatedly penetrated. Keiichi felt a chill run up his body. _That's just not right._

The old man in the kimono walked up to the big silver doors. He held up his key in his hand.

"Gentlemen!" he said. "I welcome you to the Private Moon Room!" The old man turned and unlocked the big doors. More of the perfume hit the men in the faces like a wave. By this time, Keiichi built up a minor tolerance to the smell. The bright white light drew in the patrons. They all turned their seats in black glass booths. Keiichi sat in front of a red button sitting on a desk in front of them. The old man in the kimono walked on stage.

"The auction for our goddess begins!" he announced. The light purple curtains rose behind him and the spotlight focused on the stage. Keiichi happened to look and notice a girl about nineteen walk out on stage. Her long blonde hair came just above her arse. Her petite figure was only covered white see-through silk that wrapped around her body. Only golden pins held it in place. Her make-up made her look a little older. The stoic look on her face added to the element of mystery surrounding her. Keiichi felt a sudden head rush as his cheeks turned red when his eyes met this "goddess" standing on stage.

_Who is this girl?_ He couldn't think straight as his eyes stayed on her and the wild whistles and hoots around him. The old man in the kimono walked up to the "goddess" standing on stage.

 

 


	11. Noriko

 

 

Halo Ten: Noriko:

Mikado lay on his bed while listening to an explanation on the floor.

"Uh-huh," he said, half-listening. This could be another attempt to throw him off the scent. Mikado frowned as he looked at his hand.

"I see," he said. Mikado didn't buy any of it, of course. However, the caller asked him something that made him jump.

"What did you say?" Mikado asked. He dropped his phone on the floor.

\----------

Saturday morning.

Mikado awoke to his cell phone ringing. He groaned as he reached for it from underneath his sheets.

"Hello?" he asked.

"Mikado?" a small voice asked on the other line. The boy's eyes widened.

"Anri?" he asked.

"Yes, are you okay?"

"Uh, yeah, yeah. I'm just happy to hear someone else's voice on the phone for a change."

"I'm sorry?"

Mikado pressed his hand to his forehead. "Nothing, what's up?"

"I have a question."

"Okay..."

"Has Noriko ever attempted suicide?"

That question made him freeze. "Excuse me?"

"I was asleep when a pounding on my door woke me up last. Nobody was outside, but I found a Box addressed to me on my doorstep."

That made Mikado sit up straight in his bed. "Who sent it to you?"

"There was no return address."

"Well, what was in it?"

"Cassette tapes and memory cards. They weren't  labelled either. I tried to play one of the memory cards in my phone, but it couldn't handle it. I plugged the card into my computer and played it."

"What did you see?"

"It had different files on it, but I did watch one of the video files on it. Noriko had scars on her wrists and arms."

Mikado pressed his lips together as more memories sparked in his head. "When was it filmed?"

"Hang on." Mikado heard clicking on the other line. "It says July the tenth of this year."

"That can't be right," he said.

"I don't get it either," Anri said. Mikado leaned back against the wall. He began remembering nights of Noriko crying and cutting herself. At one point, the founder of the Dollars had to try and pry the razor blade out of her hand. _When did all that happen?_

"Was there anything else on the memory card?" Mikado asked.

"No," his crush said. "Just video of her scars and her looking really skinny."

"What?"

"In one video while Noriko was cutting herself, she looked so thin that I could see her bones through her skin."

"That would explain why I keep asking if she had eaten," Mikado muttered under his breath.

"What did you say?" Anri asked.

"Listen, I got a box last night too. I haven't opened it up yet."

"Do you know who sent it?"

"No." Mikado sat up and looked at the box under his computer desk. "I'm going over to your place to look at these memory cards with you."

"Not yet, but I'll bring it with me, okay?"

"Sure."

"Meet you in thirty minutes?"

"Alright."

"See you then, bye."

"Goodbye." After Anri hung up, Mikado climbed off of his bed, grabbed his box, and headed out the door.

\---------

The inner circle of the Tandeki group met in the high office. Junko stretched out her arms.

"They are starting to catch on," she said. A woman in a white lab coat snorted.

"This will not do," she complained. "If they figure it all out, they will try to stop us again."

"True," the nurse said. "But if we try to separate the little darlings, they will migrate back together. If they stay together, they will wise up and stop us. Isolating them from everyone else is slowing them down at the moment, but how long will that hold?" The other woman glared at her.

"You never take this seriously, Junko!" she complained. The nurse shrugged with a little smirk.

"What?" she asked. "What's wrong with toying with the little dears?"

"Your games will get us busted!"

"You are no fun, Aya!"

"Quiet, both of you!" a man snapped. The ladies drew their mouths closed. Their boss rubbed his forehead.

"As I was saying, we have completed phase one of our plan," he said. "It is now time to begin phase two." His staff of five looked up with intent eyes.

"Can I start it off?" Junko asked. Aya glared at her colleague.

"Oh hell no!" she snapped. "You will drag this on for months! We don't have time for that shit!" The nurse cut her a dirty look.

"You will make the game too short and boring," she said. "I want to get as much fun out of it as I can."

"Stringing it out?"

"Entertaining myself."

"Enough!" their boss said. Junko and Aya quieted down. The boss rose to his feet.

"I will choose who starts phase two," he said. "You all will go back to your stations for the time being." Another woman with brown hair raised her hand.

"Yes?" the boss asked. The woman lowered her hand.

"What do we do about Orihara-san?" she asked in a small voice. The boss sat back down in his chair.

"Yes, well," he said. "You let me deal with him. That is all for now. You are dismissed." The inner circle departed for the rest of the day.

\---------

Saturday Evening

Mikado received a text from Noriko when he returned home.

Can we talk?

Mikado typed his own reply.

Sure. Come over. Where are you now?

She sent back another reply.

I'm just about at your place. Please wait for me?

Mikado looked out the window and saw Noriko walking towards his apartment. He unlocked his door as she walked up the stairs. She stood outside, looking so pale.

"Ishikawa-chan, are you alright?" he asked. Noriko shook her head.

"I didn't know where else to turn," she said as she sat on his futon minutes later. Mikado handed her a cup of tea.

"Here," he said.

"Thanks," she whispered. Mikado sat down beside her as she took a drink.

"What's the matter?" he asked. Noriko pressed her lips together.

"I found a box on my doorstep last night," she began.

"You too?"

"What?"

"Oh, Anri and I got the same box last night too."

"With the tapes and memory cards?"

"Yes."

Noriko drew her knees to her chest. "Then you probably know what I'm going to ask."

"Yeah."

She took in a deep breath. "Was I ever suicidal?"

"I have no idea," Mikado admitted. "I have no idea." Noriko rested her head on his shoulder.

 

 


	12. Shirley

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fourth volume is up. Second of three stories that follow my poem, "Wasteland 2011" and the core story. The Raira trio, Noriko, and Chiharu keep experiencing strange memories that they can't tell if they are real or fake. The only clues that they have are the little notes that they keep discovering in their texts, e-mails, and on paper. Who does Mikado keep talking to on the phone?

 

 

Halo Eleven: Shirley:

Mikado pressed his forehead against the glass of his window. He started to zone out of the explanation the caller on the other line was giving him. (Probably more lies away.) Mikado was about to nod off when something caught his attention below. Or rather someone.

A little boy about five or six years old dressed in pajamas with short spiky black hair looked up at his window. (At least, he thought it was his window.) This child had a blank stare as he stood there. Mikado looked at the child with a confused look on his face. _Where have I seen that kid before?_

"Uh... I'm going to have to call you right back," Mikado said. He hung up and rushed outside. To his surprise, the child was gone. Mikado looked around with the phone in his hand. _Who was that kid?_

\-------

"500 points!"

"750!"

"1,000!"

Keiichi couldn't believe his ears. These men were bidding on this young woman on stage. She didn't seem fazed by all of this. The old man in the kimono rubbed on her back in a creepy way. She stood with an empty look in her eyes. The bids got higher around them as the lights danced in the glass booth above.

"5,000 points!"

"10,000!"

"20,000!"

"50,000!"

This didn't feel right. She was a human being about to be sold like a sex slave to the entertainment of randy older men. The young lady on stage would more than likely be like those women in the hall. He couldn't stand to envision this young woman on stage being essentially raped with a blank look on her face. Keiichi couldn't sit back and let it happen. His desire to rescue her compelled him to push the red button in front of him.

_100,000 points?_

"500,000!"

"600,000!"

The man in the kimono rubbed his hands together, grinning. He only got to relish one nights like this twice a year. A new "owner" would keep her during the summer. (More like secondary owner while he still held control of the doll on stage.) The old man looked at his golden watch. _Time to close the auction._

"Okay!" he said over the microphone. "Thirty seconds left!"

"1,000,000!"

"2,000,000!"

"5,000,000!"

"10,000,000!"

"50,000,000!" The last bidder of this was the planned buyer for this summer turn. He and the primary owner made a secret deal the night before. The old man in his kimono held up his hand.

"Going once!" he shouted. "Going twice!" Suddenly, one more bid came that broke the winter record.

"1,000,000,000!" It came in just before the voting was closed down. The old man nearly stumbled backwards as his pipe hit the stage.

"Going once!" he shouted. "Going twice!" The intended buyer desperately tried to go higher, but his bid couldn't reach the speakers in the ceiling. The young woman's owner hesitated, but found that he had no choice but to stay with tradition.

"Sold!" he shouted. "Please stand up and state your name!" Keiichi about jumped out of his chair when his booth lit up. _Oh shit, I didn't expect all of this! I can't use my real name here; I'd blow my cover._ Keiichi rose to his feet in his booth.

"Ono!" he said.

"Come down and claim your prize!" the old man announced. As if in a trance, Keiichi walked down the black stairs in front of his glass booth. The other gentlemen in their booths started shouting as he walked onto the stage.

"Share her! Share her! Share her!" they pleaded. Keiichi tuned them out as he came within inches of the goddess on stage. Her golden eyes made his cheeks turn bright red. One touch of her small hand made him see what he had to do.

"Share her! Share her! Share her!" the gentlemen in their booths begged. Keiichi grabbed the microphone from the original owner.

"No!" he shouted. "I will not!" The college student threw down the microphone and left the stage with the young lady by his side.

"Share her! Share her! Share her!" the gentlemen begged. The primary owner gritted his teeth as the pair disappeared behind the curtains.

\---------

On the same night, Masaomi got on his phone. He heard that he had to make this one call before he could go deeper into the truth.

 "Hello?" a girl's voice asked. The shogun of the Yellow Scarves sat up straight.

"Saki-chan?" he asked.

"Masaomi? What's the matter? You sound rather worried about something. Did something happen?"

"I just wanted to call and say that I love you."

"Masaomi?"

"Good night." He hung up before she could say anything else and he broke down crying. His own box sat next to him on the floor.

\--------

In her office at Tandeki Headquarters, Junko twirled a bride and groom cake toppers in her hands. Only one notion crossed her mind.

"I think it's time for a little reunion or two," she said.

 

 


	13. Izaya

 

 

Halo Twelve: Izaya:

Mikado was careful not to talk too much on the phone every number. He wouldn't talk about the box unless it was Masaomi or the girls. Luckily, the caller hadn't asked too many questions about any boxes or Noriko lately. That did little to put Mikado's mind at ease. He still expected that boot to drop hard.

"Ah, yes I was listening," Mikado said. "I was just thinking about something else."

\------

Izaya knew they will kill him. He had a target on his back. Tandeki was never going to let him join the inner circle. The best thing he could do was to prove himself useful to preserve his longevity. Today's errand was no different.

\--------

Noriko followed Chiharu to the post office.

"Thanks for coming out with me today," Chiharu said.

"It's fine," Noriko said. "I didn't have much to do anyway." Her old friend turned her head.

"You just wanted to get out of going to therapy today, didn't you?"

Noriko giggled, sticking out her tongue. "Guilty."

"Why do you keep going?"

Her friend shrugged. "They'll probably keep calling me if I don't show up."

"Ah." The girls arrived at the post office. Chiharu turned to Noriko.

"I won't be too long," she said. "Please don't wander off."

"Alright," Noriko said. Chiharu walked into the post office. Twenty seconds later, Noriko heard someone say, "Oh, Nori-chan." She turned to see Izaya standing inches away from her. He smiled at her like a cat.

"I seemed to have misplaced my phone," Izaya said. "Could you help me find it?" Every fiber of her being screamed, "Run!"

"Where did you last leave it?" Noriko asked.

"I'm not sure," Izaya lied. "I had it with me this morning."

"Okay..." Noriko tilted her head. "Did you set it down somewhere?" The information broker rubbed his forehead.

"Oh, this is bad," he said. "I am expecting an important call today too."

"Alright, I'll help you," Noriko said at last.

"Thank you so much," Izaya said. His victim already regretted saying that as she followed him down the street. During the walk, the information broker glanced over his shoulder.

"Funny," he said. "I don't have any information on you."

"Huh?" Noriko asked.

"I know about everyone in this city. But you..." Izaya turned around. "I dug up every file on you, but it comes up fake or empty. Why is that?"

Noriko froze as she had the feeling of déjà vu with these questions. "What are you saying?"

"Do you know where your parents were born?"

"No."

"Do you know your parents' names?"

"No."

"Do you even know who your parents are?"

She shook her head. "I... I don't know. I..."

"Where you born?"

"Tokyo."

Izaya shook his head. "No, you weren't."

"I was."

"No you weren't." His gaze made her feel like she was shrinking. Noriko's eyes widened as she began to panic. She rested her fist to her chest.

"What you want with me?" she asked.

"For you to be honest," Izaya said.

"About what?"

"Everything."

"But what do you mean?"

"Oh, there you are!" a voice spoke up. Izaya and Noriko looked up and saw Chiharu jogging towards her. She grabbed her friend by the wrist.

"I told you not to wander off," Chiharu said.

"She didn't wander off," Izaya said. "She was helping me finding my phone."

"Shut up, you weasel!" Chiharu hissed.

"Bye," Izaya said, waving as the girl dragged away her startled friend. He pulled out his phone from his coat pocket.

"I did as you said," Izaya said.

"Good, good," Junko said on the other line. "That will be all for today."

\------

On the other side of the street, Makoto and Evie had just walked out a store when Noriko and Izaya were talking minutes before. That brief exchange made Makoto freeze. His heart raced against his chest as his head began to spin. The pulses of the wasteland came with the painful questions. _Why? Why does she have her voice?_

\--------

Meanwhile at an elementary school, a teacher was in the middle of teaching her class when a violent attack hit her. She began to have vision herself being naked and on fours. The images only came in bits and pieces, but they were so strong that they made her tremble. She could see a pair of strong hands around her throat from behind, her ankles and wrists tied down to a bed, and her mouth around a huge, throbbing...

"Yamazaki-sensei, are you feeling okay?" Awakusu Akane asked from her desk. The teacher pressed her hand to her head as she shook it.

"No," she said. "Everyone... study group for the rest of the period." The students whispered amongst themselves as Yamazaki-sensei dragged herself out of the classroom in a cold sweat with more visions skipping around in her head.

 

 


	14. Winter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: Welcome to the Halloween special of Wasteland 2011! I went for broke on this one! Here are some quick notes to prevent confusion during reading:
> 
> Hetalia/Tea Leaves: Ju, Yao, Qian, Junjie, Gana, Snake, Szu, and Jia Long
> 
> Durarara/Wonderland: Mikado, Masaomi, Shirley, Chiharu, Noriko, Keiichi, Kurumi, Mairu, Mari and Aoba
> 
> D.Gray-Man/Dying Dream: Ophelia

Halo Thirteen: Winter:

Ophelia could only see an endless sea of black. Her body float in the emptiness. The only thing company was the judgmental voices around her, screaming at her.

Slut!

Tart!

Whore!

 Murderer!

Whore!

Whore!

However below her, she heard different voices that did little to ease her nerves.

\--------

December 23rd, 2013.

Zhong Junjie sat in a noodle bar having a late dinner. Tonight was a rather slow night. For weeks, his father nagged him about getting married some.

"You are twenty-four years old!" his old man said. "You can't be fooling around and doing useless crap anymore! Get married and live up to the family name!" Junjie frowned and rolled his eyes. _Stupid old man!_ He stuck up his hand in the air.

"Oi!" he shouted. "I want a doggie bag!"

"Coming up!" the cook shouted back. Thinking about his father made Junjie lose his appetite. He didn't feel doing much anymore and he didn't want to go home either. The cook walked over to his table.

"Here you are," he said. Junjie paid for his dinner and walked out of the restaurant.

"Hey, Zhong," the cook spoke up. "What happened to that pretty little thing you were always with?" Junjie rolled his eyes and walked out the door.

\-------

\- Ikebukuro-

Shirley stood backstage of the main part of Red Bunny.  She waited with bated breath in her black suit. Keiichi went over the plan with her before she left the house.

"You sure you want to do this?" he asked at their apartment. "You can back out of it if you want." Shirley shook her head.

"I'll be fine," she assured him. "I can do this." Keiichi pressed his forehead against hers.

"Please be careful," he told her. Shirley nodded.

"I will," she said back. Sliver Dreamer waited for the MC to call her up on stage tonight.

\--------

Meanwhile, Mairu turned to her sister.

"Kurumi-chan!" she said. Her sister looked up from the TV. Mairu came within inches of her face, grinning.

"You know what we should do?" She didn't even wait for her twin to answer. "We should sleep with Aoba-kun. I bet he's virgin." Kurumi broke into a little smile. That alone told Mairu that she was keen on the plan.

"I'll call him," she said. The younger twin got on her phone and called up Aoba.

\--------

Mikado had his earbuds in as he lay on his futon. This would be the fifteenth time that he had heard these tapes. This time, he was looking for something in particular. Tape number sixty-four sounded low if you didn't know what you were looking for. Mikado tried to focus on through the muzzled silence on the tape.

"Untie me."

There it was. That small message, only two words, made Mikado sit up every time. He tried to figure out the identity of the speaker. From what Mikado could gather, this was probably a young woman tied up in Chou Mori Institution. She could be a potential victim in the Angel Project. He rewound the tape and took another listen.

"Untie me."

This one mystery was driving him crazy. It didn't help that he didn't have all of the tapes. His friends had some of the audio tapes just like he had some of their memory sticks and said tapes. He figured it was about time to another exchange to have a full picture of Chou Mori Institution and "Angel Tadpole Heaven".

\---------

-Beijing-

Outside of the noodle bar, Wang Jia Long stepped towards Junjie to ask him for directions. When he opened his mouth to speak, Junjie shoved his leftover dinner in the Hong Kong man's hand. Jia Long gave him a rather confused looked as the spoiled heir walked away.

Junjie continued his walk down the empty street. He didn't want to get home just yet, but he couldn't think of anywhere else to go. Thinking about his dad kill whatever good mood he had. Suddenly, a black van pulled up and stopped in the middle of the road. Four men in black climbed out and trailed the bratty heir.

"Oi!" their big, bald-headed leader shouted. They followed Junjie before he stopped and turned around. Just by the looks on the men's faces, he started to freak out. His first thought was that they were drug dealers coming to collect on the money that he had stiffed them over months ago.

"Gentlemen, lovely to see you," he said. "Anything I can do for you tonight?" The leader in the black hoodie walked closer. The spoiled heir gulped.

"The money is on its way, I promise," he said. "I just need to get some..." The men in black glared daggers. Right off the bat, Junjie saw that talking to them wasn't going to work. It got worse when the leader was inches away from him.

"No, no," the heir tried pleading with them. But the leader punched him right in the face. Once Junjie hit the ground, the other three men pounded him and began punching him. The heir struggled to escape as the men dragged him across the street.

\------

\- Ikebukuro-

Shirley walked out onto the glittered stage of the Red Rabbit. The plan was for her to be a decoy while Keiichi gathered evidence of the club's abuse and enslavement of the missing women are the city. She volunteered to do her part. Her potential boyfriend had reservations about this.

"I want to help you," Shirley insisted three days ago.

"It's too risky," Keiichi said. "I can't involve you with them any further."

She grabbed him by the arm. "I want to do this. Please?"

In the end, he finally let her help him out. Tonight, Shirley took a deep breath. _I will not fail you, Keiichi-kun._ She took the microphone and began to sing. The club rained red and green glitter as the cocktail waitress were sexy Santas. On the surface, everything looked normal. The girls served drinks, sat with the patrons, and flirted with them.

\---------

Meanwhile, Keiichi used his VIP pass to gain entry into the backway. Nanami, Shirley, and the other victims were counting on him to carry out Arisu's work and save them. He looked around in the hall. Hearing Shirley's sweet voice through the speakers gave him the courage to execute his plan. _I can do this_ , he thought. Keiichi reached into his bag and pulled out his equipment.

\---------

At the Orihara apartment, the twins were waiting by the door when it buzzed. Mairu opened the door.

"Hiya!" she said. Aoba blinked as he used her grinning like a cat and Kurumi smiling.

"You wanted to see me?" he asked.

"We just wanted to give you your Christmas present early," Mairu said.

"Okay... where is it?" Instead of an answer, the twins grabbed him by the wrists and pulled him inside. The door slammed shut behind him.

\---------

Back at Rampo Biotech, Mari sat at the main computer typing away in the basement. This super machine ran so hot that the room had to be kept below zero in temperature. Mari shivered as she typed out the latest code for the latest program. Her fingers were sore and numb as they moved across the laptop. She would've rather been home in bed instead of furthering her mother's twisted ambition on their project on unpaid overtime.

_We can't keep doing this._ Too bad her mother, the boss, everyone else in Tandeki wouldn't listen.

\---------

-Beijing-

Szu was only fifteen years old. She had only met Junjie once. He asked her for directions to get to a certain bar that escapes his name at the time.

"Excuse me," he said. "Do you know how to get to this address?" He handed the girl a sheet of paper. Szu and her friends read over the sheet.

"I know where it is," she said. The girl tried her best to get him the right directions, but he only pretended to be listening.  He kept his eyes on her the whole time like he hadn't eaten in days. Her friends took baby steps backwards. Junjie had other things on his mind. Most of them involved Szu. He would just have to have her.

"Was that helpful?" Szu asked at last.

"Yeah, yeah," he said. "Thank you, so much." They bowed and parted ways. That wouldn't be the end of it, however.

He trailed her back to her house. It didn't matter if she wanted him or not. Junjie only saw her as the flavor for the night. To him, girls were just his toys to fuck. If they didn't want him, too bad! He was going to have her whether she wanted it or not.

\--------

\- Ikebukuro-

Shirley's voice had so much woeful soul in it tonight. The men had their eyes glued on her as they took their drinks. One of the cocktail waitresses sat with a patron as he pulled her in closer. He turned her face for a kiss.

In the mood of the song, Shirley began to dance. The colored lights spun around the room. She needed to go for broke with this performance for Keiichi. The goddess reached behind her head and unpinned her long light brown hair and shook it lose as the music began to rise. Shirley undid her tie and threw it aside. After flipping back her hair, her blazer and shirt hit the floor. Eyes were fixed unto her lacy black bra.

\--------

Chiharu sat at her laptop watching another video on the memory card. Like Mikado, she too was looking for something. In fact, it was Mikado who exchanged this card for five of the audio tapes she had in her box.

"I really think you need to see this," Mikado told her last night. Judging by the tone of his voice, this had to be urgent.

"Okay, thanks," Chiharu said. Once she was sure that she was home alone, the girl hit play on her laptop. On this clip, a woman about nineteen or twenty years sat on the floor chained to the wall by her ankle. Her rapid breathing made her sound animalistic. Nothing in her empty eyes suggested any trace of humanity. She was naked except for a collar around her neck.

A man in a white lab coat walked into the frame with a tape recorder in his hand. Chiharu raised an eyebrow. _What is this?_ The man reached down and pat the girl on the head.

"This is Day Forty-Seven of Project Angel," the man spoke into the recorder. "Subject F has grown more stable once we fed her the human remains of three failed test subjects. It seems that in order to survive, these angels need to consume human flesh. My team and I have not looked into why this is so yet." The man turned and lifted Subject F's head. Chiharu's jaw dropped.

_Is that... me?_ She grabbed her phone and typed, "Mikado, what the hell did you just give me? Who is this girl in the clip?" Chiharu hit send. Against her better judgement, she resumed watching the rest of the clip.

\----------

Meanwhile, Noriko sat on her living room floor trapped in her own turmoil. Her memories felt scattered up in her head. She looked at her right arm. There used to be horizontal scars going down her arm. Noriko remembered cutting herself with the urge to die. They couldn't be false memories, felt too real.

Despite putting on an actress-worthy performance at school, her friends could tell this was happening again. She overheard Mikado and Masaomi talking last week at school.

"It's happening again," Mikado said in a hushed tone.

"Do you mean...?" Masaomi began to ask. He shook his head, frowning. "No..."

"Yes, I don't know how long before she begins to lose it again."

"Has she started...?" The blonde moved his right hand in back and forth motion above his left arm as if cutting himself.

"No, not yet."

"How can you tell?"

"I kind of looked at her arms when she rolled up her sleeves to clean the floor today. She's still eating too."

"That's good," Masaomi said. Hearing them say those things only confirmed what Noriko feared. _Even they know I'm not imagining it._

She drew her knees to her chest. Noriko lifted her head when she heard her cell phone ring. Her hand crept over and picked it up.

"Hello?" she asked in a trembling voice.

"Ishikawa-chan, are you okay? You sound worried about something?" Mikado asked. Noriko about fell backwards as she shook her head.

"Worried?" she asked. "No, no! I'm fine! Why would you say that?"

"Listen, we all need to talk. Can we meet at your place?"

"What for?"

"We'll talk when we get there." Mikado hung up before she could speak. Noriko's stomach turned as she stared at her phone. She hoped it would be that...

\---------

-Beijing-

The bald-headed leader, only known in the underground as Snake, punched Junjie on the ground. The heir's arms flailed about as the other three men punched him on the ground.

"Come on!" one of them yelled before stomping him in the face. Junjie tried to bite at one of the one guys as the held him down for the beating. He finally managed to break away and hold out his arms as if challenging them to fight. The spoiled heir punched one of Snake's goons in the face before running away. The men in black gave chase down the alley.

\---------

Later on that night, Szu put the key into the lock. He watched her from the bushes across in the Liao clan's garden. Ever since that brief encounter just last week, he watched her in his obsession. He timed everything down to their second encounter. Up to this point, no day felt right for him. Szu was never really alone. Tonight, her parents weren't home and her friends didn't accompany her. He licked his lips as he watched her open the door from inside.

_Perfect!_

Szu reached over to turn on the living room light. Before her fingers touched the switch, a heavy hand grabbed her onto her wrist. Another hand covered her mouth as she forced to the ground. Her eyes darted around in panic. She couldn't see Junjie's face.

"Please let me go!" she begged. "I can give you money, if you want." The big hand smacked her across her face. Junjie growled something to the effect of threating to have her friends murdered if she ever went to the police, but fear kept her from understanding what he was saying. Szu whimpered as he ripped open her blouse.

"Please let me go," she pleaded. "I won't tell anyone, I promise." His hand covered her mouth as he ripped off her pantyhose's. He pushed apart her thighs and broke her. Thrust after thrust tore her up inside as tears began streaming down her cheeks. He wanted her to know that he had her and loved it. Junjie broke her and ended it with a kiss. Szu lay there with wide, empty eyes and crushed soul. He smirked as his obsession was fulfilled.

"Good night," he hissed. Szu didn't move a muscle as she heard him walk out the door.

\---------

\- Ikebukuro-

Shirley fell back on the stage, crying out. As she got deeper into the song, tears streamed down her face as she writhed around in pain in her dancing. It felt as if someone was beating her up. During while, Keiichi worked to set up mini cameras around the secret rooms. He didn't slow down for a rest. The public had to know the truth.

_You're doing good, Shirley. Keep it up, I'm just about done on my end._ Keiichi walked further down the hall.

\---------

Hentai made sex look so much easier. Mairu and Kurumi were learning this the hard way as they were looking up sexual positions for a three-way with two girls and a guy on the internet. Aoba sat on their naked and waiting. The twins were only in their panties.

"I can't find anything on here," Mairu complained.

"How about this one?" Kurumi asked, pointing to the screen. Mairu looked at the picture and frowned.

"My butt would be in his face," she complained. They would have all night to figure it out.

\--------

-Beijing-

Three months after Szu was assaulted, Qian took matters into his own hands when Ju and Yao were dragging their feet on the issue. He turned to his secret DJ friend, Gang, for help. Qian even went as far as to pay him 1,280.72 yuan for the job.

Gang took that money and added about 3158.20 yuan when he spoke with Snake in his garage. The secret hitman counted the money as Gang explained the problem.

"You in?" he asked at last. Because Snake despised Junjie just like everyone else did, he nodded. Gang smiled.

"One more thing," he said. "Don't get too happy. I don't want too much attention. My old man works in morgue."

"Yes, yes," Snake said.

\---------

Snake slammed Junjie against a brick wall in alley and punched a good ten times. He kneed the spoiled heir in the stomach before throwing him back on the ground. He stomped him right in the chest before him and his boys kicked punched him. Junjie tried in vain to shield himself as the beating grew more serve.

When they were done, the three goons ran off, but Snake stood over a beaten Junjie and smirked.

"That was for her!" he shouted. The hitman spat on the target before walking away. Junjie pulled himself onto his knees and broke down sobbing.

\---------

-Ikebukuro-

As the music got more intense, Shirley lay on the stage, screaming. At one point, her body jumped as if someone had stomped her in the chest. She rolled on the floor screaming. Somehow, the men in the audience enjoyed the show. When she rose to her feet, Shirley tore down the thin silver streamers behind her. At the end of the song, she sank down to her knees in tears. _How did I do, Keiichi-kun? Did I do great? Please praise me._

\---------

Keiichi installed the last camera in the main office. He stood back, smiling. _There, that should do it._ The journalist student turned on the cameras with his cell phone and walked out. He would pick up Shirley when the show was over.

\-------

When Mari was finished typing the code, she got up and walked out of the room. That should keep her group happy for the time being.

\-------

As Aoba and the twins slept from there threesome last night, Mikado and his friends met in the streets at sunrise. Nobody slept for the whole night.

\---------

-Beijing-

From one of the apartment buildings above, Gang watched the whole show. When it was over, he pulled out his phone and wrote, "It's done." He smirked as he hit send.

\---------

In the distance, someone was calling out to Ophelia.


	15. Nanami

 

 

Halo Fourteen: Nanami:

-Six Months Ago-

"Tell me something," Mikado said on the phone. "What do you know about Chou Mori? Yes, the mental hospital. What can you tell me about it?" He expected some bullshit to fill his ears again. Why should he expect anything new from whoever this was? However, tonight sound different. Mikado paused with his typing as his eyes grew wide.

"What did you say?" he asked. The caller started with their own question. Mikado dropped the phone on the floor.

\--------

2:00 a.m.

Keiichi awoke to his cell phone ringing. He reached out of his bed and felt around for it.

"Hello?" he mumbled.

"Is this Minami?" a woman's voice asked, trembling. Keiichi narrowed his eyes.

"Uh... who is this?" he mumbled.

"You don't know me, but I can't seem to reach Arisu-san."

Keiichi sat up in bed. "Who are you? How do you know Arisu?"

"Uh... my name is Yamazaki Nanami," the woman said. "She told me to get in touch with you if I couldn't reach her."

\----------

Nanami couldn't understand why this was happening. She was a normal woman in her twenties. She taught math at an elementary school. Nanami was described as cheerful and energetic among her students and colleagues. That youthful energy was what drew her boyfriend to her in the first place. But lately, disturbing visions began to frighten her.

Last month, she received a bouquet of flowers at her apartment. The delivery man walked up to door and rang the bell.

"Yes?" Nanami asked when she opened the door.

"Are you Yamazaki Nanami?" the delivery man asked with is cap, covering his face.

"Yes?" the grade school teacher asked. The delivery man gave her a bouquet of white flowers.

"These are for you," he said. The perky teacher took the flower with a smile on her face.

"Oh thank you!" she said. "Who are these from?"

"A secret admirer," the delivery man said. Nanami didn't listen as she took a sniff of the bright white flowers. It all disappeared into a haze after that. Hours later, Nanami awoke in her own bed.  She couldn't remember what happened in those lost hours.

Five weeks ago, the first vision appeared while she was teaching her class. She began to have visions herself being naked and on fours. The images only came in bits and pieces, but they were so strong that they made her tremble. She could see a pair of strong hands around her throat from behind, her ankles and wrists tied down to a bed, and her mouth around a huge, throbbing...

"Yamazaki-sensei, are you feeling okay?" Awakusu Akane asked from her desk. The teacher pressed her hand to her head as she shook it.

"No," she said. "Everyone... study group for the rest of the period." The students whispered amongst themselves as Yamazaki-sensei dragged herself out of the classroom in a cold sweat with more visions skipping around in her head.

These visions grew worse as the days wore on. Nanami could almost feel the hands around her neck. She thought there might have been a mirror involved with this. These "memories" made her skin crawl. It didn't help that one certain teacher kept staring at her. Ah yes, him.

"Yamazaki-san!" he said in the hallway this morning. Nanami about jumped when he appeared in her face, grinning.

"Hi, Fujihara-san," she said. Her coworker gave her a funny look.

"You look so pale, are you feeling okay?"

"Uh... yeah, yeah. I'm sorry, is there something you want?"

"Oh, we have a staff meeting at three today."

"Huh?" she asked. Nanami realized what he said and waved him off. "Oh, I don't think I'm going to go. I don't feel too good."

"Are you sick?"

"I'm not too sure. It's a long story. Excuse me." She bowed and walked down the hall. However, Nanami paused and turned around when something caught her ear.

"What did you say?" she asked. Fujihara-san blinked with a strange look on his face.

"Wha? I didn't say anything," he said.

"I guess not," Nanami said. She turned and walked down the hall. Part of her was sure that Fujihara-san said something to the effect of, "I'll see you this evening, bitch." But really, why would a meek, awkward guy say something like that?

\----------

Mikado sat down at his computer. Today, he had to look at what was on the memory sticks on the box he had for days. His friends had already started investigating contents of their own boxes. Anri already asked about Noriko's suicidal tendencies three days ago. The others began to question when certain occurred.

"Would you kill somebody if you had to?" Chiharu asked this morning on the way to school.

"No..." Mikado said, shaking his head. "Why would ask something like that?" Chiharu faced forward.

"Just a simple question," she mumbled under her breath. His friends' observations made his skin crawl. There was no way that any of those things could be real. Still, Mikado found himself plugging in one of the memory sticks into the computer.

Video #228

The voice was from the point of view from a patient strapped down to a bed.  A man in a white coat walked into the room with a tape recorder in his hand.

"January seventh," he said. "Observation of patient Chirin begins." The man turned to the door and opened it a crack. A young-looking female orderly poked her head inside.

"It's okay," the man said. "Chirin won't bite. He's pretty much a vegetable at the moment." [Something about the name "Chirin" sent a chill up Mikado's spine as he watched the clip.] The female orderly walked into the room.

"There you go," the supposed doctor said. "Let's what we have come into the room to do." The pair walked over to the patient strapped down in the bed.

"Chirin came to us three months ago," he said. "So far, we still don't have any reason for his crime or punishment. Part of which is due to him being a minor. To tell the truth, the motives and reasons mean nothing to me."

"What are we going to do with this Chirin patient today?" the orderly asked.

"Delighted you asked!" the doctor said. "Read off his stats." The orderly looked at the patient's chart.

"Health is in good condition, brain activity is normal, he has no known history of diseases," she read off. She looked at her boss. "This is a healthy boy."

"Exactly," the doctor said. He reached over to the table by the bed and picked up a syringe filled with clear liquid. The female orderly's eyes widened.

"What are you going to do to him?" she asked.

"Another little experiment on him," the doctor said. "Don't worry, Chirin may be able to see and hear us, but I have immobile for the time being."

"What is in that?"

"Oh... just a special little drug I whipped together last week."

The orderly raised an eyebrow. "Isn't this unethical?"

"It's fine. I'm doing this to make him better." [Mikado and the patient didn't like the sound of that.]

"Sensei, I can't..." the orderly said.

"Don't back out on me now!" the doctor hissed. The female orderly shut her mouth as her boss turned to the patient. He smiled as he patted him on the head.

"Good morning, Chirin-kun," he said. "How are you feeling today?" The doctor turned back to the nervous orderly.

"Come here," he said. "How are you with giving injections to a patient?"

"What?" she asked.

"I am not only a skilled doctor; I do like giving teacher opportunities to potential protégés."

"So I'm a protégé now?"

"That will depend on you." The doctor picked up Chirin's arm and wrapped a leather chord around near the shoulder. "Here, I'll give you a handicap just for today." The orderly hesitated at first before walking over to the patient.

"Good, good," the doctor said. "Now, locate a vein and put in the needle." She walked over and looked at the patient's skinny twig of an arm.

"Do a good job," the doctor said. "A number of interns and orderlies already screwed up with this part. I can't keep track of all of the patients that have bruises on their arms. God knows how those little idiots managed to pass medical school." The orderly pressed down on Chirin's arm to feel for a vein.

"There," the orderly said. She took the syringe and stuck it into the patient's arm. The doctor stood over her as he watched inject Chirin with the clear liquid.

"Very good," he said. "You got it on the first try." The orderly stood back.

"What is this drug of yours supposed to do?" she asked. The doctor broke into a nightmarish grin.

"Let's just say it's like giving him a liquid lobotomy, minus the tools."

"A lobotomy?"

"Not real one, he'll experience the symptoms of one for a few days and then the _real_ fun will begin."

"I see..." The video file ended with the orderly have a demented, curious look on her face. All of the color drained from Mikado's face. Something about hearing the name "Chirin" made him cringe. Still, this video alone pulled him further down the rabbit hole.

\----------

6:00 p.m.

Keiichi sat at the counter in Russia Sushi waiting. He didn't know why he agreed to meet with Nanami. He barely knew this woman that called him up at two in the morning. She insisted on this agreement and hung up before he had a chance to argue. Keiichi lowered his head and sighed. _At least she might be able to give me some clues as to what happened to Arisu-sempai._

"Keiichi-kun?" a woman's voice asked. The journalist student lifted his head to see Nanami standing inches away from him.

"Are you... Keiichi?" she asked.

"That's me," he said. Nanami breathed out as she put her hand to her chest.

"Oh, good," she said. "I can't reach Arisu-san." Keiichi tilted his head.

"You knew my friend?" he asked. Nanami sat down on a stool next to him.

"She tried to save me," she explained.

"Huh?"

Nanami looked down at her hands. "About six weeks, I started having this strange visions. Really bad."

"What do you mean?"

"Please don't make me go into detail." Nanami pressed her lips together and looked him into the eye. "I thought I was going crazy, like I imagined it. Then Arisu-san tracked me down at my apartment and told me that she was working at this club called Red Rabbit."

That could his attention. "Go on."

"She said I wasn't imaging it. All of the things I was seeing did happen to me in Red Rabbit." Nanami moved her hands to her throat. Keiichi remembered seeing all of those women possibly being raped with those blank expressions on their face as he walked with the men to the auction room. Thinking about them made him shudder.

"So, Arisu told you that you were being raped in the club," he said. "Then what? Did you go to the police?"

"And tell them what?" the teacher asked. "I think I was raped in a club? I don't remember what happened or who did it to me. Who else would believe me?"

"What did Arisu plan to do once she told you were a rape victim?"

"She was gathering evidence to expose Red Rabbit to the public. She called me on the night that she disappeared. When she didn't call back, I remembered that she gave me your number."

"Okay, why me?" he asked. "Why would you come me with all of this?"

"She told me that if anything were to happen to her that you were to finish her work." Nanami grabbed Keiichi by the hands. "Please, I want to get my life back!"

Keiichi stared at her with blank eyes. The teacher looked at him so desperate.

\----------

After the exchange, Keiichi walked back to his apartment. He pressed his hand against the door. How did this happen? First, Arisu turned up missing and now he had to deal with a girl that he "bought" last night and now a woman was begging him to continue an impossible crusade that his missing friend began. Keiichi sighed. _Could this get any messier?_ He unlocked the door and walked inside.

"Welcome home," a girl's voice said in his living room. Keiichi dropped his bag when he saw the goddess sitting on the couch, waiting. _What the hell...?_ He backed out of the apartment and closed the door. Keiichi reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. _Arisu, where are you? What did you drag me into? I don't think I can do what Yamazaki-san is asking me to do! Help me!_

\----------

Across the city, Arisu's pink and white iPhone rang in the dumpster behind Red Rabbit.

 

 


	16. Michiko

 

 

Halo Sixteen: Michiko:

"So who exactly is Chirin?" Mikado asked after watching another video file with experiment with said patient. "I keep seeing videos of this doctor, some nurses, and a couple of orderlies injecting him with needles. Funny thing, his face is always covered up in these videos. Why would that be?" Mikado looked at his notes and the ones he copied from Chiharu last night.

People You Should Never Leave Noriko-chan with:

Orihara Izaya

Nakahara Junko

Kitano (?)

The third name on Chiharu's list made Mikado stop and read it again.

"Excuse me," he said. "But who exactly is Kitano? Does he have something to do with Chirin? In fact, you talk like that doctor in the video." Mikado froze as he did the math in his head. "Wait, are you--?"

The caller said something in a soft voice.

"What did you say?" Mikado asked. He felt sudden sharp headache as more images filled his mind. He saw visions as if he was looking from Chirin's point of view. One orderly caressed his cheek with her dark red nails, licking her lips. Another one whispered something faint in his ear that made his blood run cold. Not only could see Mikado see things from Chirin's vision, but he began to feel the abuse that he suffered at the hands of that doctor and his associates. He felt his eyes being held open with wires as a needle went into the left eye. Another needle went into his tongue. A third needle went into his arm. Mikado panted as he smelt that overpowering wave of bleach. He fell over on the floor. The attack lessened when the caller on the other line asked about is well-being. Mikado cleared his throat.

"Yeah, I'm okay now," he said in a choked up voice. The founder of the Dollars sat back up. "Now, what were they talking about again?"

\----------

"We had a deal!" a man dressed in a sharp suit yelled at the man in his kimono on the morning after the auction. The older man puffed his pipe.

"I know," he said.

"So why didn't you hand Sliver Dreamer over to me?"

"Ono-san outbid you."

The other man, Takahashi, slammed his hands on the desk. "But I put in a higher bid after him!"

"The voting was already cut off." Red Bunny's owner dumped his pipe in the ashtray. "Look, you played the game and you lost. That's how it goes in this club."

"But we had a deal!" Takahashi snapped. "I paid you over 6141875000 yen up front before that night!"

"And I am grateful for that," the old man said. "But rules are rules."

Takahashi's face turned bright red. "Watanabe, you tricked me!"

"No, I followed tradition. I can't break the rules if someone bids higher than you at the last minute." Watanabe put up his hand as his old friend opened his mouth to speak. "However, you still have the chance to have a rematch of the auction. Do you still have a gold card?"

Takahashi puffed up his cheeks. "Yes."

"Let me see it."

His old friend reached into his wallet and pulled out his bright gold card. Watanabe looked at the card's expiration date and smiled.

"You're in luck, dear Nobu," he said. "You've barely used this card." He handed it back to the man on the other side of the desk. "It looks like you can invoke a rematch." Takahashi looked like he would fly through the ceiling.

"Thank you, Hibiki!" he said, bowing. Watanabe shrugged his shoulders.

"Hey, I don't enjoy this Ono guy owning Shirley as much as the others in the club."

"Where the hell did he even come from?"

"I have no idea, but I promise you this: he's not staying long. Red Bunny does not need any more troublemakers like that annoying cocktail waitress."

"What did you do with her?"

"Oh, I had some friends deal with her. We will be fine as soon as we get our goddess back."

"Agreed."

\----------

"Ah, Hiroi Michiko," Izaya said as he stared down the thirteen-year-old girl across the table. He called her to his apartment hours earlier. His "friends" at Tandeki had no idea this meeting was taking place, but he doubted that they would care anyway. Izaya could do as he pleased as long as he didn't interfere with the group's plans. Michiko frowned.

"Cut the crap," she hissed. "What the hell do you want with me?"

"I just want to talk," the information broker said.

"You're working for Tandeki, aren't you?"

Izaya chuckled. "Let's just say that they and I have become good friends."

Michiko snorted. "I should've known." She happened to notice how Izaya was staring at her like a hungry cat about to pounce upon a small bird. "What?"

"It's funny," Izaya said. "According to my information, Hiroi Michiko is supposed to be thirty-seven years old. Why is that you look thirteen years old?"

"Well, if you knew my history with Tandeki you would know the reason why," Michiko said in a low voice.

"Of course, but does _he_ know why?" Izaya smiled when he noticed the girl glaring daggers at him. "Figured that he wouldn't." Michiko clenched her fists in her lap. She and Izaya have played this game before. Michiko could even predict the next lines coming.

"Spare me your bullshit," she said. "Spit it out already. Your voice makes me want to grind my teeth."

"Aw, you don't have to be so mean, Michiko- _san_ ," Izaya said.

"Whatever," the girl said across the table. She lost count of how many times they did this stupid dance.

\---------

Junko sat in her office playing with a board game on her desk. In the center, she had five pieces-a bride cake topper, a mini cherub, a blue game piece, red piece, and a yellow piece-in a circle. The nurse ran her finger on the tops of their heads.

"The little darlings are catching on faster than we expected this time," she said to herself. Junko pushed the five pieces away. "Break them up, they will walk through hell and heaven to get back together." She pushed the pieces back together.

"Keep them together, they will ruin everything." Junko trapped the pieces in a glass tube. "For now, the best route is to trap them in a glass bubble and cut them off from everyone dear to them." The nurse tapped the glass and smiled.

"Yes, this is perfect." Junko frowned as another crossed her mind. She pushed another blue piece towards the glass tube. "We have another pest trying to get into the bubble." The nurse pushed more blue pieces behind the free one.

"This will not do." Junko knocked down the blue pieces on the board. She looked at the rest of the pieces surrounding the ones trapped in the glass tube. "Know your pieces for our projects!" Her cell phone rang.

"Hello?" Junko asked. She sat up in her chair. "I understand! I'll be there in an hour!" The nurse stood up. She took last look at board before covering it up and leaving her office.

\---------

Mikado plugged in another memory card and clicked on another video file. He already saw four videos on the first memory card. So far, Chirin was the star of these videos. Mikado never got to see the patient's face. Chirin's head was either covered with a sheet or the camera was shot from his point of view. Why were the hospital staff so desperate to conceal his identity? Who was this mysterious Chirin and why were they so obsessed with him? The founder of the Dollars had to watch videos to find the answers.

Video #288

Again, the video was shot from Chirin's point of view. This time, a curvy female orderly walked into the room. Her lipstick matched her deep crimson nails. Her lips curved into a smile when she laid eyes on the patient.

"Well, good morning!" she said in her perfect English. The orderly walked over to the bed. "So you must be little Chirin-kun." She lifted the sheet and took a peek down his pants.

"Oooo, you don't seem so little," the orderly said. "You know; I have seen bigger around here. You're on the average side, but that's fine with me." She giggled as she climbed on top of the unbound patient. However, the orderly paused when she heard the door open. The doctor's protégé stood in the doorway with a disapproving look on her face. Her naughty colleague tried to look all sweet and innocent.

"I was just.... you know, checking up on him," she said.

"Get out!" the protégé shouted as she pointed to the hallway.

"Okay, okay," the orderly said. She climbed off of Chirin and walked past her colleague with a goofy smile on her face. The doctor's protégé sighed and shook her head.

"Slut," she muttered under her breath. "I swear this place needs better security."

For once, Chirin and Mikado were happy to see the protégé for a change. Sadly, both doubted that happiness would last long as she took out the chart and began running over his stats for another damned experiment done on the patient. In a sense, Mikado began to sympathize with Chirin lying helpless in his bed.

_Poor guy_ , he thought. Still, the founder of the Dollars couldn't look away.

\---------

Meanwhile, Masaomi came across a strangely titled e-mail. _Hm? What do you fear the most?_ The leader of the Yellow Scarves opened the e-mail. Masaomi read a list that made his heart sink.

Don't forget about Saki-chan

Tell her that you love every day

She is your girlfriend

Don't forget about Saki-chan

You love her.

Don't let your heart die

Saki-chan is the one you love

Keep yourself together

Don't let them take Saki-chan away from you

Please don't forget about Saki-chan

As Masaomi read each line, he felt it string in his heart. He remembered the picture of his girlfriend on his cell phone acting weird. The image distortion had become more frequent lately. Over the past three weeks, strange memories of seeing Saki's body lying cold in a morgue filled his head. Because her parents couldn't be reached, the leader of the Yellow Scarves had to claim it. Masaomi pressed his hand against his forehead. _That can't be right! She can't be dead. Saki-chan's still alive. Saki-chan's still alive!_ He grabbed his phone and called up his girlfriend once again.

"Saki's phone, I can't pick up right now. Please leave a message," her voicemail said. Masaomi felt like getting stabbed in the chest. For the past few days, Saki hadn't picked up the phone. He looked so pale as he hung up. Despite trying to convince himself that his girlfriend might be too busy to pick up the phone, Masaomi couldn't escape this foreboding that he felt creeping up behind him. _Please be okay, Saki-chan._

\----------

"You are aware they will kill you, right?" Michiko asked. "Once you are all used up, they will depose of you. I bet they won't even let you into the inner circle." Izaya chuckled.

"Yes, yes," he said. "I already know."

"Then why do you stay with them."

"Isn't it obvious?"

Michiko narrowed her eyes. "No..."

Izaya sat back with a smile on his face. "I just want to see what happens next."

She sneered. "Then you are just as foolish as I thought."

"And what about you?"

Michiko raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"Why are you so obsessed with him?" Izaya asked. "He's not going to love you like you do. Why do you even bother? Your love is what's going to drive him straight to us after his lover dies." Michiko gritted her teeth.

"What exactly are you trying to say?" she asked.

"You know what I am saying. They will reach out to him or one of his friends. But of course, you already knew that, didn't you?" Izaya noticed the building rage in the young girl's eyes. He put up his hands, shrugging.

"I thought so," he said. The information broker got up to leave. He had just reached the door when he dodged as a knife hit the door frame. Izaya turned to see Michiko panting.

"If you dig him into our hell, I swear I will hunt you down!" she said.

"Aw," Izaya cooed. He turned around and patted her on the head. "Why are you getting so mad? We haven't done anything to them, _yet_." Izaya drew back his hand before she turned her head to bite his wrist.

"Good night," he said. Michiko gritted her teeth as she let out a muzzled scream. _Bastard! Asshole! Asshole!_

\----------

Tonight, the phone rang in Watanabe's office.

"Hello?" he asked. "Ah yes, it is about time for a new supply of flowers. Thank you so much. Goodbye." Watanabe caressed Shirley's picture on his desk. _Don't worry, dearest. Papa, will get you back._

 

 


	17. Chirin

 

 

Halo Sixteen: Chirin:

-Six Months Ago-

Hazy blue eyes pulled open. His vision was blurry while his head felt like it was underwater.

_Hurt..._

His brain was just recovering from all of the drugs they had gave him over the past week. He could barely form a rational thought in his head. It hurt his body to do anything.

_Why does it hurt so much?_

The patient began to remember little things. Some things were clear while others weren't. He began to remember where he was, but not why.

The details were hazy. He had wandered out into an alley in a strung-out daze. His clothes were covered in blood. Whose blood was it? He couldn't see any faces or recall what happened. The next thing to follow was blaring sirens.

"Get your hands up!" the police shouted. The poor boy had no choice but to comply. He couldn't speak in the interrogation room. The police's questions sounded muffled to him. He blinked with glassy-looking eyes. After three days, he ended up being committed to Chou Mori Institution.

He could remember details of being in the institution. That bad doctor and his staff had him tied down to the bed day and night. He could still feel the needles being injected into his left eye, his tongue, and his arms.

He couldn't remember what day it was or why he was here. They assumed that he committed a violent murder. Funny thing, they couldn't find the bodies. No one had been reported missing in Ikebukuro. The police still had his clothes.

His empty eyes darted towards the door when he heard it opening. She came back to abuse him again. The protégé read over the patient's chart.

"Chirin-kun," she said. "How are you today?" Another wave of panic filled up the patient's eyes.

_Stay away! Stay away from me!_

The protégé walked over to the patient's bed. She examined his eyes and checked his blood pressure. Her little flashlight made his eyes sting. His hearing became sharper-though that might have been him imaging things. Reality and the emptiness the drugs in his brain blended together. He still couldn't speak.

The protégé made notes on his chart. "I'm going to have draw blood for better results." He heard his own heart pounding in his chest.

_Get away! Get away! I am a person, not some medical freak that you can stick needles in my body! Why are you doing this to me?! I want to go home!_

The protégé playfully patted him on the cheek. "I will be back with my kit, Chirin-kun." He tried to dig in his brain for any other memories about something, anything.

_I am not Chirin! I have people looking for me. I probably have family and friends worried about me. I am not Chirin. I have a name!_ He can't seem to remember it right now. Though his messed-up head, something told him that he need to get himself back and escape.

\--------

-Present Day-

The boss sat at his desk in the dark when the door opened. His protégé from Chou Mori Institution, now fully training to be a doctor herself, poked her head inside.

"You wanted to see me, sensei?" she asked. Her boss smiled with his back turned to her in the chair.

"Why yes," he said.

"Am I in trouble?"

"Now why would you ask something like that?"

The intern shook her head. "My apologizes, you still make me nervous after so long."

"There is no need for that. You and I are on good terms"

"I understand."

The boss closed his pen. "Anyway, you and I will be seeing Chirin again real soon."

His protégé covered her mouth, gasping. "You mean..."

"Yes, I believe it is past due for a little reunion."

"When?"

The boss turned his chair to face her. "In three weeks' time. After, Christmas is coming up soon. Consider this your present from me for passing the entrance exams."

"I... I don't know what to say," the intern said.

"You don't have to."

She bowed waist deep. "I thank you so much."

"Thank me when we see him again." Tandeki's boss never threw away that patient's file either.

 

 


	18. Hisayo

 

 

Halo Seventeen: Hisayo:

June 8th, 1986.

Today was one of those rare, quiet days. Asuka went out to visit her family for the day. Their father had to work late again. Hisayo and Toshiko had the apartment all to their themselves. The girls wound up not doing much for their free Sunday. They did their homework and watched TV. This type of quiet almost shocked them to the point that they didn’t know what to do first.

By sundown, their doorbell buzzed. Hisayo stood up with a puzzled look on her face.

“Is that Papa?” Toshiko asked.

“No,” her sister said, shaking her head. Hisayo stood and walked over to the door. “Who is it?”

A man with short dark hair and a tired face looked through the peep hole. He straightened up his black t-shirt and cleared his throat. Hisayo opened the door rather confused.

“Yes?” she asked.

“Is your father back yet?” he asked.

“No…”

“Ah, I see. Do you mind if I wait for him here?”

Hisayo’s eyes shifted left and right as she bit her lower lip. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know you.”

“Oh, don’t worry. My name is Kitano. I am acquainted with your father.”

“Uh… well… I’m Hisayo and my little sister is on the couch.”

“And what is her name?”

“Toshiko.”

“There, you see?” the man asked. “Now we know each other. May I come in now?” Hisayo fidgeted with her hands as she looked down at her feet.

“I guess…” she said against her better judgement. Kitano gave her what could close to a smile.

“That a girl,” he said. Kitano patted the teenage girl on the head and walked past her. Hisayo pressed her lips together as she closed the door behind them.

\--------

Kitano reached into his pocket and pulled out a long, thick string.

“Could you cut this for me, Toshi-chan?” he asked. The little girl picked up her Hello Kitty safety scissors and snipped the string in half.

“Thank you,” Kitano said. He balled the pieces in his hand and pulled the string out as one long piece. “Ah, I told you to cut this. Maybe there’s something wrong with your scissors.” He looked at the string and then at said scissors. Hisayo walked into the living room with a tray of tea.

“Here you are,” she said.

“Thank you, Hisayo-chan,” Kitano said. He picked up a cup and took a drink. The bitter taste brought up something in his mind.

“Tell me something, girls,” he said. “Are you familiar with the Land of the Dead?” Hisayo and Toshiko looked at him with a blank stare. Kitano chuckled.

“I didn’t think so.” He set down his cup. “There is so much that you girls don’t know. You two could be of good use to the future someday.”

“What do you mean?” Hisayo asked. Kitano leaned back against the couch.

“Oh, don’t mind the ramblings of a man trying to figure it all out,” he said. “Still, I think you have some bright futures ahead of you.”

“Are you Papa’s friend?” Toshiko asked.

“You can say that,” the man dressed in black said.

“He’s never mentioned you,” Hisayo said in a careful tone.

“Ah, well, we barely get to see each other at work and I am on the rival side.” He could tell by the looks on the older sister’s face that she wanted to grab Toshiko and run out the door. Kitano ran his finger around the top of his tea cup.

“Now, now,” he said. “I wouldn’t come here to harm you girls intentionally.”

Hisayo tilted her head. “Then… what do you want?”

“I just want to talk to your father.” Kitano looked at the clock above the TV. “Your father is sure late getting home.” As if on cue, the front door opened.

“I’m home,” the girls’ father said. He had just taken off his shoes when he spotted Kitano sitting on the couch. “What are you doing here?”

Kitano put up his hands, shrugging. “I was just talking two your daughters while I waited for you to come home.”

“Get out!” Isobe-san shouted. The other man calmly rose to his feet.

“Alright,” he said. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then?” Kitano walked over to the front door and put on his shoes. He was just about to walk out when he turned to Isobe-san.

“Oh, Isobe, you have such pretty girls,” Kitano said in a low voice.

“Don’t you ever set foot in this apartment ever again!” Isobe-san shouted. He slammed door after his rival left. It took the father about ten minutes to calm down. His daughters looked at him with big, frightened eyes. Isobe-san pressed his hand to his forehead.

“I am so sorry, girls,” he said. “I didn’t mean for you to see such an ugly scene. Have you had dinner yet?” His daughters shook their heads.

“Right…” the man said. “Let’s see what mama left you in the fridge.” Hisayo and Toshiko didn’t budge as their father walked into the kitchen.

\---------

-Present Day-

Kitano sat at his desk with Chirin’s patient file and the article about the Isobe murders. The former sent a shiver of anticipation for a reunion while the latter made him smile at how the girls were helping them with his grand plan of a game. He only wished for the right “happy accident” to spark round two.

He would get his wish right about… now.

Kitano looked up when his phone rang. He shoved aside everything and flipped open his phone.

“Hello?” he asked.

“Boss, we’ve got a problem,” one of the interns in Rampo Tech’s basement lab said.

 

 


	19. Chiharu

 

 

Halo Eighteen: Chiharu:

Three girls from a private high school were walking home from a karaoke bar in the early hours of the morning. They were a bit tipsy and giggling as they stumbled down the street.

"That was crazy last night!" one of the girls said.

"I have never seen you drink that much," her friend said. The main girl laughed aloud and leaned against a wall.

"I am queen of the world!" she shouted. The girls howled aloud. However, they went quiet when they heard a crashing noise. They slowly turned their heads.

"What was that?" the main girl's other friend asked. The trio followed the sounds of chomping around a corner and down a dimly-lit alley. The girls froze, color draining from their faces. They stared at the pale, wild-looking girl. Bright red blood stained her white dress. Long black hair covered her face as she chomped what looked like a human arm. She made grunting noises as she ate. The three girls backed away, trembling.

"What… is that?" the lead girl asked. The creature finished up the arm before she moved to the hand.

* * *

 -Chiharu-

I remember the night when Mom and Dad died. Tatsuya was fourteen and I was seven at the time. July tenth, 2003. That night was our parents' wedding anniversary. I forgot what number it was, but that's not relevant to this story.

I remember that night well. Mom and Dad had just come home some dinner party they were having some friends to celebrate another successful marriage. They were acting all sweet and icky like most happy couples do. Mom kissed Dad on the cheek. She said that she wanted something sweet.

"Please, honey?" Mom pleaded as she nibbled on his ear. My Dad chuckled.

"Okay, okay," he said. "I'll take you by your favorite bakery."

"Are you sure that it's open at this time of night?"

"Sure it is, it's open twenty-four hours a day, remember?" He gave her a kiss on the neck. Mom giggled.

"Okay," she said. "I love you, honey."

"I love you too," Mom said. I was sitting in the living room drawing pictures that night. My Dad walked over and looked over my shoulder.

"What are you drawing, Chi-chan?" he asked.

"Us," I said. I pointed to every person in the picture. "That's you, Mama, Tatsu-nii, and me." Dad chuckled and kissed me on the cheek.

"I love you, honey," he said.

"I love you too, Papa!" I said.

"Honey!" Mom whimpered. "I want to get my cake now!" Dad smiled and sighed.

"Yes, your highness," he said. Dad joined Mom near the living room doorway. Tatsuya was playing some video game at the time.

"Tatsuya-kun!" Mom said. "Dad and I are going to make a quick trip to Hirota."

"Yeah," Tatsuya said, not looking up.

"Please put your sister bed on time," Dad said.

"Yeah!" Aniki said.

"Love you, kids!" Mom said.

"Love you!" Tatsuya and I said back. She blew us a kiss and Mom and Dad walked out the door. That was the last time we saw them. At eight o'clock, Aniki bathed me and put me to bed. Tatsuya didn't notice that Mom and Dad hadn't come back hours later.

By morning, we learned of the horrible truth. Mom and Dad were killed in a traffic accident on the way home. We were eating breakfast when Tatsuya got the call from our aunt. When I looked up from my rice, Aniki was sitting on the kitchen floor, crying.

"What's wrong, Tatsu-nii?" I asked. Tatsuya looked up with big tears in his eyes.

"Mama and Papa are nothing coming back," he said in a choked-up voice.

"What do you mean?" I asked. Tatsuya explained the whole concept of death to me. I couldn't remember how I reacted that morning. The funeral was days later and Tatsuya ended up raising me on his own.

I didn't ever think that Mom and Dad's deaths would ever play into the mess that my friends and I were getting dragged into.

* * *

 -Present Day-

Around eleven in the morning, a black Toyota jeep pulled up to the alley. Junko stepped out with a stun gun in her hand. She looked around and spotted the pale girl eating the liver of her victim. The wild creature looked up and saw Junko through her tangled, matted black hair. Junko whistled.

"My, my, my, my," she said. "You have caused such a headache for my branch. Breaking out to have a little snack in the early morning hours." The creature panted. Her finger-like claws punctured the liver in her hand. Rowena lowered her shoulders.

"Still, it amazes that you managed to escape from the lab," Junko said. "Your brother was too stupid to escape." The creature tried to crawl away with empty, wide eyes.

"I suppose coming back with me quietly is out of the question, yeah?" the nurse asked. The creature panting as she looked around for an escape. Junko sighed with hand to her forehead.

"You leave me no choice," she said. The nurse raced over to the creature with the stun gun turned on. "Come on. Come to auntie." She took one step forward and the creature jumped back. The nurse smirked.

"Got yeah," she said. Junko rushed forward and jumped on her. After wrestling on the ground, the nurse got the creature on her stomach. One zap to the nape and it was over. Junko stood up and panted.

"That's it," she said, turning off the stun gun. "Take a long nap." Junko pulled out her smart phone.

"It's me," she said. "I have Z secured. What do I do with her…?" The nurse looked down at the blood carnage at her feet. "Ooo… Dinner?"

"Leave it," Kitano said on the other line.

"Are you serious, boss?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said. "This will give people something to talk about as we unfold phase two of our game. Just get Z back to the lab."

"Yes, sir," Junko said. She shoved her phone into her coat pocket and kicked away the bloodied shark mask on the ground. The paperwork was going to be a pain in the ass. Junko shook her head, picked up Z, and dragged her into the jeep. Junko buckled her into the passenger seat instead of tossing her in the back.  _What a pain_ , the nurse thought. She got into the driver side and drove away.

* * *

Later that evening, Mikado got a text from an unknown number.

"Meet out at the karaoke bar tonight."

 

 


	20. Kitano

 

 

Halo Nineteen: Kitano:

Mikado was put on hold again tonight. As he waited, he started to do some thinking. Why did this person keep calling him? They still wouldn’t tell him anything about themselves. These conversations started to annoy him. It didn’t help that Mikado was running out of ways to give the caller the run-around. He couldn’t even tell his friends about these phone calls just yet. Mikado sighed as he looked out the window. If only he had some way to…

Mikado sat up when the caller returned.

“Yes?” he asked.

\---------

By Friday morning, everyone in Ikebukuro was talking about the eaten corpse found in the lane. Rumors about a cannibalistic murderer was on the loose. Only the members of the Tandeki Group knew what was going on.

-Kitano-

I sat at my desk, resting my chin on my hands. It was after business hours, but I didn’t feel like going home just yet. In fact, I was in a chatty mood.

“Why am I doing this?” I asked. “Create a new world? What a romantic notion. Make myself a god? Don’t be ridiculous. There is no god. So why am I doing this?” I felt myself smirking.

“Let’s just say that I made a promise to someone. What exactly am I talking about, you ask?” I finished the drink on my desk. “Allow me to tell you a little story about myself.”

-Masaomi-

His memories were getting more vivid.

This time, Masaomi saw himself walking up to the morgue. Coroner waited for him inside from the rain.

“Thank you for coming,” the old man said in a hoarse voice. “We couldn’t reach the victim’s parents.” He and Masaomi bowed.

“Where is she, doctor?” he asked. The coroner lowered his gaze.

“Follow me,” he whispered. Masaomi hoped that this still a bad dream as they walked down the hall. The coroner led him into the room where the covered body was kept.

“Are you sure you can do this?” he asked.

“Yes,” Masaomi said. The coroner turned to the covered body on the table.

“Tell if the body on the table is Mikajima Saki?” the old man asked. He pulled back the sheet to reveal a girl of seventeen with short light brown hair. Masaomi broke down into tears. All denial flew out the window. His beloved Saki was dead.

“I’m so sorry, young man,” the coroner said.

Masaomi couldn’t tell if this was a real memory or not. He looked at his cell phone. Three weeks and Saki hadn’t picked up the phone. At this point, the leader of the Yellow Scarves feared the worst.

Someday, his phone rang in his hand. Masaomi’s heart flipped when Saki’s name popped up on the screen.

“Saki-chan?” he asked.

“Masaomi-kun?” his girlfriend asked. “You tried to call me about three hundred times. Is something wrong?” Masaomi tried to laugh it off.

“Nothing,” he said. “It’s just good to hear your voice again.”

“Okay…”

“Yeah.” Masaomi’s heart was at ease once he knew that Saki was still okay and alive. _Of course that was a false memory_ , Masaomi thought.  _What was I so worried about?_

Still, why could he get rid of this foreboding feeling in his gut?

-Kitano-

“I will spare you the boring details of my life. You see, I was born with a serious heart condition that kept me in the hospital from ages two to fifteen. I will cut to the point of this story. When I was eleven, a nurse accidentally gave me the wrong medicine. It is possible that she got my charts mixed up with another patient’s in the hospital at the time.” I played with the glass on my desk.

“Anyway, as the doctors tried to lower my fever and keep me from dying, I awoke in a place called the Land of the Dead.” My eyes trained on Izaya sitting across the desk from me. I didn’t wait for him to ask any questions.

“What is the Land of the Dead? Take the aftermath of the bombings Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Kobe and mix them together. The ground was made of mud that was so thick that my little bare feet kept getting in it. The winds carried the howling of tormented wails. There was nothing but empty landscape and dark green fog. The people walking around looked shadowy stick figures acting like moving through the routines of a normal day in rural Japan.

“I walked through this Land of the Dead for hours. I didn’t have a destination in mind.”

“Didn’t you want to get out?” Izaya asked.

“I didn’t think about it at the time,” I said. “As I walked, I heard a low moaning noise. I followed a muddy trail down to an open pit covered with wires. Naturally, I had to take a look. A woman with the face of a bull frog dressed in a dark red kimono with claws for nails. She was chained down and breathing profanities. Any normal child would’ve turned and ran away, but not me. I stood there standing, staring at such a creature with morbid curiosity. She looked up with blood red eyes.

“‘What are you looking at?!’ this creature yelled. Her voice shook the land around us. I looked at the prison that she was being held in. For some reason, I head this great urge to free her.

“‘You don’t look so happy down there,’ I said. ‘Would you like me to let you out?’ The creature’s laughter made the land shake up and down.

“‘You? Free me? Don’t be a foolish child.’ I didn’t listen as I looked around for the gate.

“‘I don’t see the door,’ I said.

“‘There is no door, you foolish child! I cannot be freed the normal way!’ she told me.

“‘Then how do I free you?’ I asked.

“‘Why do you want to free me?’

“‘Just cause.’

“‘Just cause what?’

“‘I just want to.’

“‘And what do you get out of this?’ the creature asked me. I only shrugged at her. Before I knew it, I woke up back in my hospital bed.”

-Nanami-

Nanami was making herself some tea that evening when another violent wave of memories attacked her.

This time, she was in a daze walking towards an open black van. The teacher stood in a daze as two men in black suits walked her inside.

Her memory jumped to Fujihara-san sitting on a fancy satin sofa under a deep red light. He spoke to her, but couldn’t make out what he was saying. The same memories as before followed suit. The choking was so powerful that Nanami felt herself gagging as she sank to her knees. _I’ going to die!_ She managed to push herself to her feet and run to the bathroom.

After vomiting in the toilet, Nanami sat back, panting. She tried to calm herself down from trembling and looking pale. The teacher ran to her room and grabbed her phone.

“Keiichi-san, it’s getting worse!” Nanami wailed. “Please help me!”

-Kitano-

“Was it a dying fantasy? A drug-induced hallucination? Maybe both. Either way, I felt compelled to fulfill that promise I made in the Land of the Dead all those years ago.”

“So you are trying to free this creature that you met when you were a dying kid?” Izaya asked.

“As much as I want to make it sound complicated, yes,” I said. “I do have another reason for doing this, however.”

“Oh really?” he asked.

I smiled at him. “Do you have time for another story?”

-Chiharu-

This morning, Chiharu sat down with Tatsuya at the kitchen table.

“I have to ask you something,” she said with a straight look on my face. Chiharu didn’t wait for Tatsuya to say a word.

“I keep having these dreams where I am flying through the sky where I hear somebody crying. When I looked down, I saw this lady sitting on a bench in a park, I think. I flew down to her and start talking to this lady. I don’t exactly remember what we said, but she said that she had just lost her baby.”

Tatsuya gave her a strange look. “What are you saying?”

“What does it all mean?” his younger sister asked. Chiharu looked him in the eye, expecting him to call her liar or something. Instead, he raised an eyebrow.

“Who told you all of this?” he asked.

“No one,” she said. Her brother stared at her with his mouth covered.

Funny thing, nobody told Chiharu about the child their mother lost between the siblings.

-Outside-

A boy from the Blue Squares was wandering the city in the evening when he spotted a boy with a yellow scarf around his neck. When spotted his rival, the Blue Square chased him down the street. The Yellow Scarf pretended to be cornered when he whipped out a knife from his pocket.

After a short rumble in the street, the Blue Square pinned down the Yellow Scarf. The trapped boy managed to push him off.

“What the hell, man?” he asked.

“Did you do it?” the Blue Square asked. “Did you do it?!” He grabbed the Yellow Scarf by the shoulder.

“What are you talking about?” the Yellow Scarf asked.

“Did you guys kill my friend from our gang?” the Blue Square guy asked.

The other gangster gave him a disgusted look. “No! Do you think we’re that sick to kill and eat somebody?!”

Blue Square lowered his knife. “I believe you, dude.”

Minutes later, the guys leaned against a brick wall, looking at the people passing by. Blue Square turned to Yellow Scarf.

“I don’t like what’s going on here,” he said.

“Yeah,” Yellow Scarf said. “Who would be that sick and twisted to _eat_ a guy like that?” Blue Square shook his head as he trembled. Both had a dreading feeling that this was bigger than a petty rivalry between their two gangs.

-Kitano-

“A while back in the 80’s, I had a patient at Chou Mori Intuition,” I said. “She was committed by her husband after the death of her infant son. This patient suffered from depression.”  I glanced out the window.

“Peculiar woman, that one was. She was a practicing Catholic. Heh, foolish woman clung to her god like her life depended on it. Between my experiments in the asylum and sessions, I decided to destroy her god.”

I frowned. “Nothing could break that woman. Nothing.” I began to smile. “Her faith reminded me of that promise I made to that fierce creature all those years ago.”

-Noriko-

At three o’clock, Junko cornered Noriko in the hallway. The girl looked at her with big eyes.

“You were rather rude the other day,” the nurse said. “You ran away from our conversation the other day.”

“I had to get back to class,” Noriko said.

“Well, school’s over now and we can talk as long as we want.”

Her victim slowly backed up against the wall. “W-W-What do you want from me?”

“Just be honest with yourself. You are not Ishikawa Noriko. Don’t you remember your baby? Your home? Your husband?

The poor girl nervously shook her head. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

Junko gave her a cat-like smile. “Oh come on, you remember something about yourself.”

“I… I… I…”

“Ishikawa-chan!” a boy’s voice spoke up. Junko and Noriko looked up to see Mikado standing inches away from them.

“Mikado-kun,” Noriko said.

“I looking all over for you,” he said. “We’re having a class rep meeting right now.” Mikado grabbed her by the hand before she could speak.

“Thank you,” Noriko mouthed at him. Junko watched them with her hands on her hips.

“We’ll talk later,” she said. The nurse walked back into her office.

-Kitano-

“The staff in the inner circle have their own reason for following me,” I told Izaya. “Why? Go talk to them. They have mouths. I just seek out those that I find worthy to work with me. They know about the goal I’m trying to reach. Rather they find it crazy or not, it doesn’t matter to me. They are all adults. They can think for themselves. That’s why I hired them.”

“Why did you choose to scout me out?” Izaya asked.

“Ah, that,” I said. “Well, you do have your uses.”

“This is true,” Izaya said.

-Mikado-

Mikado was woken up with a phone call around three in the morning.

“Hello?” he asked.

“Mikado?” Masaomi asked on the other line. His best friend sat up.

“Masaomi?” he asked.

“Hey, is this a bad time?”

“No, what’s the matter?” Mikado listened in as Masaomi paused on the other line. “Masaomi? Are you there? What’s going on?”

“Mikado, I was going through the video files on the memory sticks in my box,” Masaomi said in a careful tone.

“And?”

“Can you come over right now?”

“Wait, now?” His friend’s next words made his stomach drop.

“There is something that you need to see,” Masaomi said.

-Kitano-

I chuckled.

“It’s funny,” I said. “You’re the second person I told about my journey through the Land of the Dead.”

“Why haven’t you told the inner circle?” Izaya asked.

“They never asked me.”

“Who was the first person you told the story about?”

“This patient right here.” I slid Chirin’s patient file across the desk for Izaya to see.

“So that’s what happened to him all those months,” Izaya said.

 

 


	21. Watanabe

 

 

Halo Twenty: Watanabe:

Mikado looked at his phone. He grew tired of this game. Clearly, he wasn't going to get a straight answer from the caller. Why did he even bother? Mikado could just let the next call go to voice mail. Come on, no one would notice. It's not like his friends knew of these secret nightly conversations anyway. This could be the last one tonight...

Mikado sat up when the caller spilled something in his ear.

"What did you say" he asked. The repeated truth made the boy's blood run cold.

\----------

"Heh?" Junko asked over the phone. "Are you serious? Etsuko is running the second phase?"

"Yeah," Aya said on the other line. "The boss chose Etsuko to run it this time." The school nurse sat back in her chair and sighed.

"Oh, crap," she muttered. Junko pressed her hand to her forehead. She knew that playtime would be over, but did it have to go to her? Still, Kitano always had the last word in this game and the Inner Circle didn't argue. The results alone were enough to keep them happy.

Junko frowned. But it was Etsuko running phase two, though...

\---------

Keiichi had three problems now. He still needed to find Arisu, Nanami begged for his help, and now Shirley was staying in his apartment. The last part was rather dumped on him. Right now, he sat across from her in the living room.

-Last Night-

Shirley led him to the special VIP room. She sat down on the heart-shaped bed covered in red silk sheets and took off her white silk dress. But, Keiichi held up his hand.

"No, no," he said. Shirley stared at him with a blank stare. Keiichi put his hand over his eyes.

"I can't do this," he said. "It just doesn't feel right."

"What do you want with me tonight?" Shirley asked.

"Could you please put your dress back on?" the undercover journalist asked. He peeked through his fingers as she put back on her dress. It was in that moment that Keiichi decided to get as much information out her as he could. He took off his mask.

"What is your name?" he asked.

"Sliver Dreamer," his prize answered.

Keiichi shook his head. "No, what is your real name?"

"Shirley."

"Shirley... That's a pretty name." He tried to get back on track and pulled out his cell phone. "Have you seen this woman?" Shirley stared at the picture of Arisu on his phone.

"I think I have..."

Keiichi did his best to keep his emotions until control. "Do you know what happened to her?"

"No."

"I see." He should've known. Shirley probably was kept in the dark about the "little people" of Red Rabbit. Still, Keiichi felt compelled to stay with her and talk for the rest of the night.

-Tonight-

Keiichi's phone rang in his jacket. "Excuse me." He pulled out his phone and slid his finger across the screen.

"Hello?" he asked.

"Congratulations on your win, Ono-san," an old voice croaked on this other line. Keiichi about jumped out of his couch.

"How did you get this number?!" he shouted.

"I had to get the name of Shirley-chan's newest handler."

Keiichi looked at his phone. "Handler?"

"That's right, Shirley belongs to you for the next six months."

"What?!"

"Don't worry about payment, you will make up for it in different ways."

"What do you mean?"

"You will see real soon."

Keiichi sank further into his couch. Shirley watched him with innocent, blank eyes the whole time. Her handler's eyes shifted around as his heart raced.

"Oh by the way," the old man said. "I haven't introduced myself. My name is Watanabe Seita. Pleased to make your acquaintances, Minami Keiichi." Keiichi lowered his phone after Watanabe hung up.

"Was that Papa?" Shirley asked. Her voice sounded too far away for Keiichi to hear. _Arisu-senpai, what did you get yourself mixed up into? Where are you?!_

 

 


	22. Etsuko

 

 

Halo Twenty-One: Etsuko:

-Christmas Night-

Mikado lifted his head when he heard a knock on his door.

"Who is it?" he asked in a trembling voice.

"It's only me," Masaomi said outside. His friend calmed himself down and opened the door wide enough to peek out of.

"Hey, man," Masaomi said in a low voice.

"Are you alone?" Mikado whispered.

"Yeah."

"Did you bring it with you?"

"Yes."

Mikado opened the door wider. "Alright." Masaomi followed him into the apartment. The founder of the Dollars' phone sat on his bed with thirteen missed calls.

\--------

-Five Days Ago-

Junko cut a frosty glare at Etsuko. She didn't enjoy working with her, but if she had to choose between Etsuko and Aya, the former would be more bearable. Junko tilted her head.

"Why exactly did the boss call _you_ to execute round two?" she asked. Etsuko pushed up her black-framed glasses.

"Because compared to the two of you," she said. "I actually look more competent."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Aya asked with her hands on her hips.

"You get obsessed with making Noriko into Ophelia from _Hamlet_ ," Junko said with a smirk as she shrugged.

"Hey, it's fitting for the little bride," her colleague said. "And far more productive than your stupid little head games you play with them!"

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me! You know maybe instead of screwing around; you would actually have done the tasks that your branch was assigned!"

"Well, excuse me for wanting to have a little fun with our toys."

"Your games go on too long!"

"Well you get too obsessive with having the bride and groom kill each other!"

"Okay, stop it! Both of you!" Etsuko snapped. Junko and Aya went quiet as Etsuko rubbed her forehead. She glared at their two male coworkers, Daichi and Osamu, laughing in the background.

"What's so funny?" she asked. The men were quick to stop. Etsuko cleared her throat.

"Tell me why you have failed to obtain F," she said. Junko sneered at the condescending tone in her voice.

"I'm working on it," the school nurse said. "I know where all of them are at all times."

"I take it that the spyware you installed on their phones is still working?"

"Of course, I updated this morning." Junko stuck out her tongue at Aya. Their colleague rolled her eyes and gave her the finger.

"What about Chirin?" Daichi asked from the other end of the room.

"I was given orders not to touch him," Junko said, glancing out of the corner of her eye. "The boss wants his little protégée to delight in breaking the news to him in person as a Christmas present for her exams, remember?"

"Ah, that's right," Daichi said.

"And that's fine," Etsuko cut in. "We need to focus on the task at hand."

"And what do you propose?" Aya asked. Etsuko broke into a little smile.

"I think it's time we made them remember what happened to them," she said.

"How?" Junko asked.

"With our old friend, Mnemosyne, of course," Etsuko said. She held up a small closed glass container with little purple cones inside.

"Yeah, but how will you get it to the little dears? They are starting to lose trust in those around them as it is. How do you plan to break through their little bubble we built up?"

"Simple. We give it to them through somebody they all trust."

"And how do we do that?"

"Leave it to me."

\---------

7:00 p.m.

Mikado and his friends sat at a table in the back room of Russia Sushi. Nobody dared to speak. They had been down this road before, but they didn't realize it. Mikado noticed Noriko's tray.

"You have touched your sushi," he said.

"How?" she asked as she looked down at her tray. "Oh, I guess I'm not really hungry right now." She happened to notice the concerned look in Mikado's eyes.

"Please don't look at me like that," she said back with her eyes.

"Anyway, what's everyone doing on Christmas?" Masaomi asked.

"Sleeping in." Chiharu said.

"Not much," Anri said.

"Same here," Noriko said.

"Aw, that's shame," Masaomi said. "I was thinking about calling Saki down here and hang out with us."

"How is she by the way?" Mikado asked.

"Good," his best friend said. "She's doing good." Simon walked into the room and set down a tray small glass tray filled with little purple cones. He opened the container, lit the incense, and left the room. Chiharu happened to catch it at the last minute. Before she could say a word, Mnemosyne began her wicked work. They couldn't smell the incense, but the children went quiet as memories violently filled their heads.

-Masaomi-

Saki's body lay in their morgue, cold and abandoned. Many in the apartment complex said that her death was accident. In his heart of hearts, Masaomi suspected that she had been murdered. He couldn't remember who. Izaya didn't help matters either. That bastard information broker pretended not to know anything. Masaomi had the feeling that Izaya was involved, but he had no proof.

Masaomi pressed his hand to his forehead. _Saki isn't dead. She called me last night._ Still, he had no idea how long Saki would stay alive. He didn't want to have to resort to calling her every minute. Would she even believe him if he told her that she would be killed? He couldn't even remember the events that led up to her murder. The farthest he could go was getting that dreaded phone call from the police on the day after Valentine's Day.

Still another memory of Saki was of her being dead with her face being bashed in to the point that no one could recognize her. It was as if someone thought that she was too pretty even in death. Remembering both deaths made Masaomi feel violently ill. Afterwards for some reason, the sorrow for his girlfriend stopped. He couldn't remember why this happened. That part was beyond his grasp for the time being. Maybe it had something to do with the image of Saki acting odd on his phone...

-Mikado-

Mikado could see from Chirin's point of view again. That doctor and his protégée stood over him. They weren't alone this time, however. The orderly that tried to molest him days earlier listened as the boss gave them new instructions for the morning. The women asked him questions as they stared intent. Their voices sounded so faint in his ears, but he didn't enjoy seeing that giant needle in the doctor's hand. Which was he going to stick it today? His eye? His tongue? Maybe his arms again?

Mikado already the different places the needles went into Chirin's body. He had gotten used to smelling the bleach, but something else came with the injection torture. While Chirin lay in bed, he could hear whispering. The images skipped around at the different patients in the hospital where he was being held hostage. He couldn't see their faces, but he remembered tiny features about them. One had wild-colored pigtails. Mikado couldn't see her face, but he saw the gold, blue, and purple in her messy hair.

Then there was another lady. He couldn't really see anything about her, but she was quiet and had this optimistic glow about her. Somehow, she gave Chirin a pleasing sense of comfort while he was trapped in Chou Mori...

-Anri-

Mikado would turn to her when he sank into his depths of despair. She became his light when he was drowning. Anri didn't know any other way to help him except with her body. For some reason, Saika held back with Mikado. Maybe it could sense his pain?

Mika had told her before that she and the others needed to run. The reasoning was lost in a haze of jump-cuts in her memories. Others that tried to help her circle of friends either died or wound up missing. Anri couldn't help but notice that her friends were falling apart. Mikado and Noriko were hit the worst. Masaomi sank further into a hole after Saki's death. Chiharu fell into her own world of suffering with broken angel wings on her back.

It would be up to Anri to keep everyone together if they were to live through this...

-Chiharu-

Chiharu saw F sitting in a cage in a darkened basement. This creature was different from the other test subjects in the basement. F hand developed a consciousness. She could feel pain and understand what the doctor of Chou Mori was saying.

Overtime, F grew to hate her existence and her surroundings. She grew tight of being treated like an animal and being fed the bodies of the failed experiments. She wanted to go outside. The sounds and voice sounded so inviting to her. Their warmth felt so much better compared to life in the cage. The more F listened, the more she her desire grew to escape. One night, F closed her eyes and knew what she needed to do.

Her soul escaped from her body and flew away into the sky...

-Noriko-

Noriko's memories out the most tangled up. Some had her looking so thin that her clothes were hanging off of her body. Others had her arms, legs, and torso covered in scars from cuts. Even more memories had her trying to end her own life. Oh, she tried with different methods. Hanging, swallowing pills and poison, slitting her wrists, and drowning herself. However, her friends would pull her back. Noriko sometimes silently wished that they wouldn't.

Still, there was another memory that filled her head. There was a man. Noriko couldn't see his face, but she remembered that he smelled like oranges. Whenever he entered her mind, she saw fireflies. His strong hand led her into a swallow river, showing the lovely light display of the tiny fire bugs floating around in the deep lazy summer night.

Something about that man brought her memories of joy and pain.

-Everyone-

These memories all felt too real to be false again. By the time the last of Mnemosyne burned away round two of the game was set into mention.

\-------

-Hours Earlier-

Etsuko walked up to Russia Sushi's door with a small bag in her hand.

"Welcome!" Simon greeted her. "What would you like today?"

"Hello," Etsuko said. "I'm with a relaxation study group. Would you like to try out one of our products today?"

 

 


	23. Makoto

 

 

Halo Twenty-Two: Makoto:

Mikado looked out the window while on the phone. For the past week and a half, there was a little kid standing outside his apartment, looking up at his window. He had no idea what this child wanted. Everyone else didn’t seem to notice him. The strangest thing was that child looked so familiar. Mikado tilted his head. _Where have I seen this kid before?_

A question on the other line drew his attention back to the mysterious caller.

“Huh?” he asked. “I’m sorry I wasn’t listening. What were you saying again?”

\--------

-Christmas Night-

Back at his home, Makoto froze as he heard the front door open. His maze vanished as high heels crossed the hard tatami floors.

"I'm home!" Evie called out as she took them off. Her words set off a light bulb in his head as she walked into the living room. Evie tilted her head as she gave him a strange look.

"Makoto?" she asked. "What's the matter? Makoto?" The man grabbed onto his right arm.

"I think I was married," he confessed out of the blue. Evie narrowed her eyes with a cold look on her face.

“What did you say?” she asked. Makoto pulled his knees to his chest.

“I remember now,” he said. “I was married. I had a wife.” His voiced trembled as he spoke. Evie gritted her teeth.

“Oh really?” she asked with her hands on her hips. Makoto quickly shook his head.

“It’s not like that!” he said.

“Then what is it like?”

Her boyfriend lowered his shoulders, sighing. “Please hear me out.”

\--------

Evie and Makoto sat at the table in the living/dining room. The real estate agent drummed her fingers along her left cheek as she stared down her boyfriend.

“Who is she?” she asked. Makoto had his head facing downwards.

“I don’t know,” he said.

Evie raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean that you don’t know?”

“I can’t remember much about my wife.” Makoto shook his head. “I don’t know her name and I can’t see her face. I remember that she smelt of hyacinths.” He could’ve sworn that he heard his wife’s earlier when Evie dragged him out shopping for last minute Christmas gifts for her coworkers. His wife’s voice was talking to someone and sounded panicked.

"No."

"Do you know your parents' names?"

"No."

"Do you even know who your parents are?"

"I… I don't know. I…"

"Where you born?"

"Tokyo."

"No, you weren't."

"I was."

"No you weren't."

"What you want with me?"

"For you to be honest."

"About what?"

"Everything."

"But what do you mean?"

Makoto froze when he heard that exchange when he was standing outside of the shop. He didn’t know who was speaking or what they were taking about. Thinking back, the blind man wished that he had the courage to intervene. He wished to protect her from that man grilling her to the point of her breaking down.

“Hyacinths?” Evie asked, sitting back and snorting.

“Don’t laugh,” he said. “What’s wrong with the smell hyacinths?”

“Nothing,” his girlfriend said. “It just sounds so lame.”

“I actually like it. In fact, I called her ‘Hyacinth Girl’ because of her scent.”

“Really? Can you get any cornier?”

Makoto shrugged his shoulders. “I thought it was really cute. I can’t remember if she liked it or not.”

“What else about this ‘wife’ of yours?” Evie asked. Makoto tried to dig in his brain about what else he could remember in what little memory he regained.

“She had bright red stockings,” he said.

“Bright red stockings?”

“Yeah.” Makoto held out his hands as if he was drawing the long red said clothing in his mind’s eye. “She wore them on Sundays.”

Evie leaned in with her eyes narrowed. “Like for church?”

“How did you know?”

“It was a guess. Besides, I am American, remember? Most of us go to church. I don’t of course, but that’s not the point.” She raised an eyebrow when she heard her boyfriend chuckling. She put hands on her hips.

“May I ask what’s so funny?” she asked. Makoto shook his head.

“It’s just the way that you said all of that,” he said. “It’s so weird. I can’t remember the last time I laughed at all.”

“What else about your wife?” Evie asked. His laughter quickly evaporated when she asked that question.

“She was Catholic,” he said in a low voice.

“And you’re not?” Evie asked. Makoto’s hands trembled as he shook his head.

“I see… Anything else about her?”

“No.”

“Not even a name?”

“No.”

“Do you know where she is now?”

“No.”

Evie sat back frowning as she pandered this new information. She didn’t know whether to be jealous or curious. It didn’t sound like Makoto was making it up either. Why would he and what brought all of this up now?

Outside, the blackened teenaged girl watched Makoto speak with her hand pressed against the glass.

 

 


	24. Tandeki

 

 

Halo Twenty-Three: Tandeki:

Mikado opened Google and began to type in new search terms. He started by typing on letter at a time. T… A… N…

“What can you tell me about the Tandeki Group?” Mikado asked. “Oh come on, you must know something about them.” He finished typing in “Tandeki Group” in the search box. Mikado shook his head.

“Come on, don’t give me that,” he said. “I know for a fact that they are real. You might even be one of them.” His boss persona slipped out in his cold smile. “Oh, just a thought. What would I do if you were? Well, are you?”

\--------

-Two Nights Before Christmas-

Since he couldn’t get his hands on what the Tandeki Group were doing with their projects, Izaya decided to go for the next best thing. Tonight, he managed to hack into the personnel files. To his suspicion, he found it pretty easy to get into. The last time he tried to hack into the files about Tandeki’s project, his laptop drive ended up being fried beyond repair. The information broker found himself slightly impressed.

“Well then, looks like they expected me to get curious,” Izaya said to himself. Still, he had work to do. No time to be impressed by their underhanded techniques. Izaya clicked on the file containing the profiles on the inner circle. He then clicked on the first one to check his eye.

Nakahara Junko

Age: 36

Birthplace: Edinburgh, Scotland (Hence the thick Scottish accent when she talks, Izaya noted.)

Birthdate: April 20, 1979

Nationality: Japanese

Junko graduated from University of Edinburgh in 2001 with honors in biology and botany with chemistry as her minor. She was in the middle of nursing school when she was recruited by Kitano in 2004. He paid for her to finish nursing school in Japan. Her mother, Chiba Kyoko, was highly-skilled doctor in Ikebukuro until she abruptly left Japan and relocated to Scotland in 1976. Junko’s father, Nakahara Jiro, was murdered that same year along with his secretary.

This part intrigued Izaya. He remembered looking around online out of boredom and came across the Orito Iin Clinic murders. An intern found Nakahara-sensei’s blood splattered in blood, but the bodies were never found. That case alone when give him days to get lost in research, but that would have to work. Izaya went to next profile.

Otomo Aya

Age: 47

Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan

Birthdate: July 19, 1968

Nationality: Japanese

Aya graduated from Tokyo University in 1990 with honors in abnormal psychology with a minor in developmental psychology. She was working as a therapist around the time that Kitano recruited her between 1999 and 2000. Aya and her husband, Daisuke, divorced in 2005, and had joint custody of their daughter, Mari.

Asato Etsuko

Age: 56           

Birthplace: Nara, Japan

Birthdate: July 12, 1959

Nationality: Japanese

Etsuko graduated from Nara Women’s University in 1980 with honors in chemistry and biology with a minor in psychology. She had just finished med school when Kitano recruited her in the summer of 1989. As far back as records could tell, Etsuko has been in the Tandeki Group with Kitano the longest. She prefers to keep her family and personal life a secret.

Judging by her status and how she ran a tight ship in the groups projects, Izaya had a good guess that Etsuko was Kitano’s second-in-command. He noted that in his head as he went to the next profile.

Hajime Daichi

Age: 29

Birthplace: Kyoto, Japan

Birthdate: August 7, 1984

Nationality: Japanese

Daichi graduated from Tokyo University in 2005 with honors in mathematics with psychology as his minor. He about to begin grad school when Kitano recruited in 2009. Like Junko, he paid for Daichi to go to grad school. He lived with his mother, grandmother, and two younger sisters before moving to Tokyo.

Izaya sneered at Daichi’s profile picture. He looked too much like a pretty boy than a person majoring math and science. His picture would’ve been better suited for a pop idol magazine. Izaya had to guess that Daichi was the baby of the inner circle. He made another mental note before going to the next profile.

Myojin Osamu

Age: 33

Birthplace: Osaka, Japan

Birthdate: November 23, 1980

Nationality: Japanese

Osamu never went to college, but after he met Kitano 1998, he was inspired to go to community college. He later went to Osaka University in 2000. During his second year, Osamu joined the Tandeki Group in 2002. He came from a broken home with an alcoholic mother, absent father, and a delinquent bully older brother.

Izaya noticed that Osamu looked more like a gangster than a scholar. The more he read about the members of the inner group, more drawn in he felt himself getting pulled in. Their background came a long list of information in his back pocket to use in his advantage. However, there was still one more profile. This one was the top of pile, the fat golden duck. Izaya smirked as he clicked the last profile.

Kitano Katsuhiro

Age: 69

Birthplace, Tokyo, Japan

Birthdate: January 18, 1947

Nationality: Japanese

Izaya once again read over the Kitano’s heart condition, his stay in the hospital from ages two to fifteen, his mother working in a factory, and his baby sister dying after she was born. He skipped down to the man’s family life. His wife disappeared with no explanation or leads. Kitano had two daughters, Shoko and Chiasa. The older of the two’s, Shoko, first husband died in a traffic accident in 2004. Izaya glanced over that before he scrolled down.

Hang on… His eyes latched onto something that he had never noticed before. Izaya had to read over it three more times before it sank in. _Well now_ , he thought. _This is rather interesting._ The information broker picked up his cell phone and made a quick call.

“Shinra!” he said. “Old friend, how are you tonight?”

“Izaya, why are you calling me?” the doctor complained. “I’m on a date right now. Ow! Celty!”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” the information broker said. “I need you to look up something for me.”

“Don’t you have Namie for that?” Shinra asked.

“Namie… has been disposed of at the moment,” Izaya said. “Besides, you are a doctor. You could have better access to private hospitals than I could.”

“Why can’t you do it?”

“It’s a long story. Will you do it for me, please?”

“You won’t let up on this, will you?”

“Nope.”

“Fine, what do you want me to look up?”

Izaya’s lips curved into a cat-like smile. “I need you to look up a certain patient in Hokuto Keiko Hospital.”

“Okay… What’s the name?”

The information broker gave Shinra the name before hanging up. Izaya closed up everything before he shut down his laptop.

 

 


	25. Angel

 

 

Halo Twenty-Four: Angel:

Mikado was looking up articles about memory online.

“Is it possible to alter someone’s memory without their knowledge?” he asked on the phone. “Oh… my friends and I keep having strange memories. We don’t know what to make of this.” Mikado clicked on the first that he saw. His mind started to zone out at the explanation given to him on the other line. It was just the same tired game again, anyway. Mikado’s eyes shifted to his phone.

“Excuse me?” he asked. Mikado nervously chuckled. “Of course not. What gave you that idea?” He began to suspect that the caller was starting to see through his prying questions.

\-------

“Okay, push against the bars,” Junko said. Osamu frowned in Z’s cage.

“Why I got to be in the cage with this loser?” he asked, motioning over to Izaya sitting next to him.

“Aw, Myojin-san, you’re hurting my feelings,” the information broker said with fake pain in his tone.

“Just do it,” Junko complained. Osamu and Izaya started to push on the bars.

“No, no, no,” she said. “You have to push together to get close to the strength that Z has.”

“So why am I here with him?” Izaya asked. “Myojin-san is bulky enough to cover her strength.”

“You just add on the extra kilograms,” the nurse said. “Just push with all of your weight at the same time.” The men began to push against the cage door with their weight. Junko looked at a mini-computer in her hand. The numbers of locked security system didn’t change.

“Keep pushing,” she said. Junko clocked them pushing for ten minutes and the numbers on her computer didn’t change.

“Okay, you can stop pushing now,” she said. Osamu and Izaya stop pushing and sat back for a rest. Junko looked at her small computer with an eyebrow raised.

“The security system is still intact,” she said.

“Can we get out now?” Osamu asked. “I’m starting to feel claustrophobic in here.”

“Alright,” Junko said. She punched in the code on her mini-computer and the cage door slid open. Osamu crawled out, followed by Izaya. Junko turned to her intern.

“Okay, Yui,” she said. “Tell me again what happened. How exactly did Z and D get out of their cages?” The petite intern shivered as she looked down at her feet.

“Uh… well…” she mumbled.

“Look up when you talk,” she said, sternly. Yui lifted her head with big eyes.

“Naoki and I were feeding the angels like were normally were,” she began.

“Go on…” Junko said.

Yui gulped. “I turned around for one minute and then I heard a clicking noise.” She moved her hand as if to unlock a lock by pulling up the pin. “Before I knew it, Z rushed past me and ran out of the lab.”

“And D just sat in his cage staring at the open door?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re sure that you accidentally punch in some code that unlocked the cages? Think hard now.”

“Yes. I didn’t even touch a computer.” The intern looked at her with big eyes. “I’m not in trouble, am I?”

Junko rubbed her forehead. “No, no. We’re just going to write up the report and work from there.”

“Okay…”

“You think the boss’ pets are evolving like F did?” Osamu asked. That question made his colleague freeze, looking over her shoulder.

“Who’s F?” Izaya asked.

“That is none of your concern!” Junko snapped. The information broker put up his hands.

“Okay, okay,” he said. “You don’t have to yell, Chiba-san.” The nurse snorted as Osamu mouthed at her to calm down.

\--------

10:00 p.m.

Junko knocked on Kitano’s office door.

“Enter!” he shouted. Junko stepped back rather startled. Despite working for him for nine years, there were still little things that surprised her about him. The nurse cleared her throat.

“Excuse me,” she said, pushing open the door. Kitano sat at his desk with a glass filled with melting ice in his hand. He took one glance at Junko.

“You’re still here?” he asked.

“I could ask you the same thing,” she said. Kitano chuckled.

“Fair enough,” he said. “What’s on your mind?” Junko pressed her lips together.

“I ran a test on the security system,” she said.

“And?” he asked.

“It was working beautifully and my interns didn’t screw up by accidentally unlocking the cages.”

Kitano pressed his fingertips together. “So… how did Z get out?”

“I think she might be evolving.”

Kitano’s lips curved into a cat-like smile in the dark. “This is good.”

“No. Project Angel’s not ready to advance. It still needs more time. We’re not sure how Tadpole and Heaven are progressing.”

The boss put down his glass. “Come up to the roof with me.” He rose to his feet and walked past her. Junko was unsure of what to say, but followed her boss out of the office. He had that strange power over the inner circle where if he told them to jump they did it with no questions asked.

\--------

Ikebukuro felt so cold on this Christmas Eve. Most of everyone was doing last minute shopping or sleeping. Kitano and Junko never really got fully into the Christmas spirit. Tonight was rather upsetting to the nurse. Kitano leaned over the railing on the roof.

“To be honest,” he said. “I was kind of glad that Z escaped yesterday.” Junko gave him a strange look.

“Why is that?” she asked, He turned to her with a gleam in his eye.

“Project Tadpole will be reawakened,” Kitano said. “I already my protégée out to meet up with Chirin.” He noticed the tinge of disappointment on Junko’s face.

“May I ask what is the matter, my dear?” he asked. The nurse leaned over the rail.

“How long are we keeping that toad around?” she asked. “I don’t trust that little bastard.”

“Oh don’t worry, we’ll dispose of Izaya when the time is right. At the moment, he is a bit useful. But, we have more pressing issues to deal with.”

“More pressing?”

“Yes.”

Junko tilted her head. “Besides Chirin and Tadpole?”

“You see; Project Heaven might have another derailment.”

“I thought we already took care of that cocktail waitress at the Red Rabbit.”

“We did, but a friend of hers looks like he’s taken up her cause and has their goddess in his care.”

“Let me guess, the drugs are starting to ware off.”

“So unfortunate.”

Junko pressed her hand to her forehead. “God damn it and just when the boys were cultivating new flowers.”

“There, there,” Kitano said. “Keiichi’s on our to-do list. Etsuko knows what she is doing after all.” Junko sighed when he said that.

“What is it now?” the boss asked. “Do you have a problem with the way that she runs things?” The nurse shook her head.

“It’s not that, I have no problems with Etsuko. It’s just…”

“What?”

“Does she have to bring _her_ along?”

“Why yes, she won’t have it any other way.”

Junko sighed and hung her head. “That’s what I was afraid of.”

“Why is that?”

“She’s… a loose cannon. The last time she came along, we had to start over because she killed almost all of our players in our game.”

Kitano patted her on the shoulders. “Rest assured, Etsuko will have her on a tighter leash this time.”

“You said that last time.”

“This time, I mean.” Kitano turned towards the entrance. “Now if you will excuse, I have to go play Santa for my apartment complex.”

“Still keeping up that tradition, huh?” Junko asked, smiling.

“Of course,” Kitano said. “It’s something I have to do.” Junko watched him walk out the door.

\---------

Mikado was woken up with a phone call around three in the morning.

"Hello?" he asked.

"Mikado?" Masaomi asked on the other line. His best friend sat up.

"Masaomi?" he asked.

"Hey, is this a bad time?"

"No, what's the matter?" Mikado listened in as Masaomi paused on the other line. "Masaomi? Are you there? What's going on?"

"Mikado, I was going through the video files on the memory sticks in my box," Masaomi said in a careful tone.

"And?"

"Can you come over right now?"

"Wait, now?" His friend's next words made his stomach drop.

"There is something that you need to see," Masaomi said.

 

 


	26. Widow

Widow by Noizchild

Halo Twenty-Five: Widow:

Mikado looked flopped back on his futon while the caller on the other line talked his ear off with more useless rambling. The founder of the Dollars frowned.

“You keep dodging my questions,” he said. “There is something you are not telling me. Why do you keep trying to change the subject every time I ask about Tandeki or Angel Tadpole Heaven?” Again, the caller began rambling on. Mikado’s eyes wandered around his room as he felt himself getting annoyed once again. His boss persona was about to slip out when a single note on his ceiling caught his eye.

“Do not answer this number: 03-4862-1077!!!”

Mikado looked at the screen on his phone. Low and behold, the number was 03-4862-1077.

“Uh… I just remembered, I have a homework assignment due tomorrow,” Mikado said. “Bye!” He hung up before the caller could ask any questions.

\----------

Kitano’s protégée stood outside an internet café as the little flakes of snow fell on her black hat and matching coat. She could see her own breath as she breathed out. Her cell phone rang, prompting her to answer with butterflies in her stomach.

“Hello, boss?” she asked in a high-pitched yelp.

“Calm down, will you?” Kitano asked on the other line. “You aren’t in trouble.” The protégée breathed to ease herself.

“I apologize, sir,” she said. “I am just so nervous.”

“I can understand since you will get to see Chirin again this morning.”

She placed her hand to her chest. “Merry Christmas, boss. I wish I could’ve gotten you something this year.”

“It’s fine, I just want you to take in the joy of breaking the truth to him. Speaking of which, did you get my package I sent you yesterday?”

She about jumped into place when he asked her that. “Yes, sir! I have it with me in my coat right now!”

“Do you remember exactly how I told you to do everything?”

“Yes sir!”

“Very good. I will send you his address right now.”

His protégée’s phone buzz and she ran her finger along the screen to read the text. She smiled as she read the address. “Got it,” she said on the phone.

“Enjoy your present,” Kitano said before he hung up. His protégée smiled as she looked at his text message.

“I most definitely will, sir,” she said. She headed down the street to reawaken Project Tadpole.

\---------

-3:45 a.m.-

Mikado opened the door when he heard someone knocking. He poked his head outside to see Masaomi with a memory stick in his hand. Judging by the grim look on his friend’s face, it had to be something truly disturbing.

“What did you want to show me?” Mikado asked in a low voice.

“First, tell me if you can handle watching this,” Masaomi said. His friend gave him a strange look.

“Masaomi…” he said.

“Please, Mikado. This is important!”

“Alright.”

“You sure?”

Masaomi lowered his shoulders. “Okay.” Mikado moved aside to let his best friend inside. Masaomi closed the door behind him and walked over to the other boy’s computer. He plugged in the stick. The leader of the Yellow Scarves took a deep breath and clicked on video file entitled, _Tadpoles_. Mikado took a seat next to him.

-Video #18-

The same doctor from the Chirin videos adjusted the camera to straighten it. He backed to a row of full beds.

“Okay,” he said. “My assistant, Etsuko, and I will begin the third wave of Project Tadpole. This this, we have corrected the formula and we are willing to give this project another chance.” The doctor turned to a woman with short dark hair wearing a lab coat.

“Are you ready, Asato-sensei?” he asked the woman with a filled syringe in her hand.

“Yes, Kitano,” Etsuko said.

“Good, then we shall begin,” Kitano said. He pulled out his own syringe and the pair began injecting fifty-six patients in the beds. The patients groaned at the drug’s reaction in their bodies. Soon of them started vomiting and screaming in pain. (The sounds made Mikado’s stomach turn.) Etsuko turned to her boss.

“How long do we wait before we processed to the next step?” she asked.

“Three days,” Kitano said. Fast forward to three days later. Half of the patients’ bodies were shriveled up with their mouth open. (Mikado resisted the urge to throw up.

“We can stop if you want,” Masaomi whispered. His friend shook his head.

“I can handle it,” Mikado said. “I have to keep watching.” Despite his unease, Masaomi took his hand off the mouse.)

“Count how many are left,” Kitano said. Etsuko walked around and began her count. Her boss stood back, waiting. The other doctor returned after from her walk.

“Twenty-eight,” she said. Her boss finally smirked.

“Excellent, now we can continue,” he said.

-End of Video #18-

The boys watched through all of the videos about the Tadpole Project on the memory disk until sunrise. Masaomi kept asking to stop the videos, but Mikado wouldn’t let him.

“I have to know the truth,” he insisted. “Maybe I will find out who Chirin is.” As if on cue, there was a knock on the front door.

“I’ll get it,” Masaomi said. He stood up and opened the door. Outside, a woman with dark blue hair dressed in a thick black coat and matching hat gave him a puzzled look. Masaomi blinked rather confused himself.

“Uh… can I help you?” he asked. The woman pulled out her cell phone and looked at the text from her boss. She looked at the address on the apartment and then at the text again.

“This is the right place,” she said. The woman with dark blue hair turned back to Masaomi. “But… who are you?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” Masaomi said.

“Masaomi, who is that at the door?” Mikado asked as he walked over. The woman’s brown eyes filled with stars when she laid eyes on Mikado’s face.

“Chirin!” she exclaimed. The founder of the Dollars froze when he recognized the woman sinking into a euphoric state outside. _No… It can’t be…_ He was looking right at Kitano’s protégée from the Chirin videos.

\-------

-7:00 a.m.-

The curvier former orderly from Chou Mori Institution frowned as she held her cell phone to her ear.

“No fair,” she complained in an empty research room in Rampo Biotech. “Why does Yuka get the fund of revealing the truth to Chirin?”

“Yayoi, sweets,” Kitano said on the other line. “You know how much Yuka wanted to see Chirin again.”

“But I want to see him again too!”

“And you will once we wake up his memories.”

Yayoi’s heavy chest heaved as she began breathing heavily. “Project Tadpole is being reborn today?”

“Yes. Get everything ready in the lab. I will be there when I finish my rounds at my apartment.”

“Oh, playing Santa again this year?” Yayoi asked.

“Yeah,” Kitano said. “I should be there around three o’clock.” Yayoi squealed over the phone.

“I’m on it!” she said. Yayoi hung and squealed again before jumping out of her chair.

\----------

Mikado backed up, shaking his head. “No, you must have me confused with someone else.” Yuka giggled at the trembling in his voice.

“Oh come on now, Chirin-kun,” she said. The protégée shoved Masaomi out of the while and walked up to Mikado. She grabbed hold of the boy’s face, smirking. “I recognize those beautiful blue eyes of yours anywhere.” Seeing that old fear that he felt being strapped down in bed at the mercy of Kitano and his staff in Mikado’s eyes filled her with a delight that could be compared to sexual arousal.

“I spend almost all of Christmas Eve in an internet café just to find you,” Yuka said. “Ever since Kitano-sensei had me do my first injection into your arm, I had to chase that high with you again.” The protégée picked up Mikado’s right arm as she remembered the first taste of corruption she experienced back in January. She swallowed back her drool as she remembered all of the experiments performed on Mikado close to a year ago. The boy tried to escape from her grasp.

“I never was a patient at Chou Mori Institution!” he exclaimed. “You’re lying!” Flashes of Chirin’s memories flooded his head. Mikado began to feel the needles going into his left eye, tongue, and arms. He tried to resist fainting as he smelt the overpowering scent of bleach.

“Mikado!” Masaomi shouted. “Get it together, man!” Yuka gave him a sweet, kitten-like pout.

“It makes me sad that you don’t remember,” she said. “But, the boss gave me a little friend to help rectify our little problem.” Yuka reached into her coat and pulled out a bright red spray bottle.

“I believe you and your friend over there had a little taste of Mnemosyne before,” she said.

“Mikado!” Masaomi shouted. The protégé pressed the flat head of the bottle. It didn’t take long for the odorless mist to hit Mikado’s nose. One sniff broke open the forgotten barrier in his brain.

He remembered a prison van pulling up to Chou Mori Institution in the early morning hours of October of last year. Mikado was walked up in chains to the building with the guards. The owner of the institution scowled at him as he walked by. The staff stripped the newly admitted patient naked and hosed him down with high-pressured cold water. The first day was in a blur until it was time to meet with his assigned therapist.

Mikado sat with his mind and eyes empty. He couldn’t remember why he was here or how he was found in an alley outside of the city. The clock ticking on the back wall seemed to make time move even slower. If a fly flew into the Mikado’s mouth, he wouldn’t even know it. However, something did bring him back into reality.

(Mikado thought, _when did this happen?_ )

Kitano walked into the room and closed the door behind him. He noticed something stir in Mikado’s eyes.

“Good morning,” Kitano greeted him as he took a seat. “How are you today?” Mikado didn’t speak, staring at him as if trying to figure out what was going on right now. Things turned strange when Kitano leaned and asked him a simple question.

 "If I take these cuffs off of you, will you behave yourself?" he asked. Mikado’s eyes widened as he drew his mouth closed. He could hear his own heart pounding in the dead silence of the room. Kitano reached forward with to unhook the plastic cuffs on the Mikado's wrists.

Back in present day, Mikado sank to his knees, trembling. He moved his mouth as if to try and say something. Yuka stood over him with the smile of a hungry wolf staring at a deer.

“Now you see?” she asked.

“No…” Mikado murmured.

“Yes!” she said. Happy chills ran down her body. “Oh, those experiments were the best times of my job at Chou Mori! No matter that slut Yayoi wanted a piece of you. I don’t blame her the more I look at you!” Mikado pulled his knees to his chest.

“I… I am Chirin?” he asked.

“Yes,” Yuka said. “You are Chirin, Kitano-sensei’s proudest work.” Yuka took in the delight of breaking the boy. For months, she only had the memories of sticking the former patient with needles and running tests on his body. The timing for Tadpole’s rebirth couldn’t have come at a better time. She ran her skinny fingers through Mikado’s short black hair. Yuka still hadn’t delivered the final blow to the false, safe castle that they had created for their escaped tadpole patient.

“You want to know what the best part is, Chirin-kun?” she whispered in his ear. “Tadpole will be reborn and we are just beginning.” Yuka licked Mikado on his ear.

“That’s enough!” Masaomi snapped. The blonde-haired boy ran over and grabbed the protégée by the shoulder. He pushed her back so hard that she hit the floor. Yuka sat up to see Masaomi pulling Mikado into his arms.

“I don’t know who you are!” he yelled. “But get the fuck out of here!” Yuka smiled as she put up her hands.

“Fine,” she said. “I have class today, anyway.” The protégé rose to her feet and turned to leave. When she made it to the door, Yuka looked over her shoulder.

“We’ll be in touch again,” she said to Mikado. The protégé blew a kiss and walked out the door. Masaomi had to stay with Mikado for the rest of Christmas.

\----------

Meanwhile, Anri received a text from Mika. “We need to talk. Where can we meet?” Those words made her freeze. Somehow, she had read this before. As she tried to remember what would unfold after this part, Anri began to type her reply.

“Would my place be okay?”

Mika typed back a reply. “I will be there in twenty minutes.” Anri fell back on her bed as she had the feeling that the storm had already started and she and her friends didn’t notice until now.

\-----------

-Christmas Night-

Kitano chuckled at his desk in his office.

“It’s funny,” he said. “You’re the second person I told about my journey through the Land of the Dead.”

“Why haven’t you told the inner circle?” Izaya asked.

“They never asked me.”

“Who was the first person you told the story about?”

“This patient right here.” Kitano slid Chirin’s patient file across the desk for Izaya to see.

“So that’s what happened to him all those months,” Izaya said. Patient’s real name? Ryugamine Mikado.

 

 


End file.
